Demigod OC Fic: The Timekeeper
by timelordXatXhearts
Summary: 5 demigods who know nothing about each other are thrown together by the oracle and are given the choice to work together and save the world or to perish with its downfall. Reluctantly, the rag-tag group of teenagers are forced like jagged puzzle pieces into a demented prophecy that deems 1 of them dead and another a traitor to the Gods. (((FROM OC CONTEST)))
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N: Hey guys! So you submitted your OC's for me to write, and 5 lucky winners got them! Don't freak out if you don't see your OC in this chapter, this chapter is just an intro one, the next one is where things really pick up! Anyways here are the winners and their characters:_**

_Percabeth-Posthena:_Julianna (July) Williams

_Ngarc345: _William (Will) Winters & Hannah Winters

_Fairy Tail Fanatic 4EVER: _Natsuki Morgans

_Princess Of Flames:_Ryan Blaze

_Ngarc345: _Chloe Ann Denning

Enjoy!

**SUMMARY:**

5 demigods who know nothing about each other are thrown together by the oracle and are given the choice to work together and save the world or to perish with its downfall.  
Reluctantly, the rag-tag group of teenagers are forced like jagged puzzle pieces into a demented prophecy that deems 1 of them dead and another a traitor to the Gods. Tension only grows higher when they start accusing each other of being the said "traitor" in the prophecy and when a forbidden relationship begins to form.

* * *

**Chapter One:** A Not-So-Warm Welcome, To a Not-So-Summer, Summer Camp

* * *

Ryan had been walking over the hill to the Big House for approximately 2 seconds before he heard the voice of a girl, coy and snarky, call him from behind.  
"Wait, hold up! Is that the famous Ryan Blaze angrily storming up Half-Blood Hill?" she said playfully.  
He scoffed and turned around, weakly smiling at the girl, and looking her up and down.  
If the wild brown mess of hair, tan skin, and war hammer, veined with ember fire, and slung to the side wasn't enough to give away that she was Arabella McCade, aka "Cade", daughter of Hephaestus, the permanent smirk on her lips would do it.  
But Ryan's hands were still shaking with electricity and his bottom lip was still trembling.  
Ryan rubbed the nape of his neck and sighed.  
"Listen, i've never met you before, and i'm sure you have a great personality or something, but just- just not today. Not today."  
He turned again and continued trudging over the lawn of green, but this girl was persistent.  
"Wow! Ryan Blaze, Son of Zeus and heart throb of Camp Half-Blood, actually talked to me! I'm freaking swooning…" She played, sarcasm coloring her voice.  
"No but really, i need to talk to you about-"  
"What part do you not understand about 'Not today'?" He interrupted.  
She smiled again, but this time coldly.  
"What is it, daddy issues?"  
He lunged towards her, but she sidestepped him.  
"No, how about i just walked 7 miles to summer camp, because i couldn't exactly go home and explain to the police how i survived a helicopter crash in a lightning storm and how about i'm pretty sure my Godly father just murdered my family?!"  
Cade's smirk fled her face and she hesitantly tried to reach out a hand to the boy she barely knew, but he jerked it away and continued, fuming.  
"A-and how about i don't need advice or sympathy from an annoying girl who's as ignorant as the next-"  
"You know what, Blaze?!"  
They were inches away from each other's faces now, both armed with snarls and with their hands on the hilts of their weapons.  
"What, McCade?!"  
She was breathing heavy and searching her mind for words.  
"I think you're an egoistical teenager with-!"  
"ENOUGH!"  
They both turned, exasperated, towards a female demigod, who for some unknown reason had reddish splotches dyed into her once-orange camp shirt.  
'Guess she doesn't dig orange?' Cade assumed, letting her fingers fall away from her hammer.  
The girl caught her breath for a couple of seconds before saying anything.  
"I have a message."  
It was July Williams who spoke, with honey hair, swooped to the side and wind blown like she'd been running, a few caramel curls sticking by her ears with sweat. There was a crumpled orange note held between her two fingers like a cigarette. But everyone in camp knew Juliana Williams was far too pretty and far too smart to smoke cigarettes. Her boyfriend Matt was a completely different story, with his reckless winks, danger-tossed hair, and "oh well!" smiles. He was in love with her and she didn't even see it.  
And for someone who was described by the guys as "sun-kissed", the girl sure did hate orange.  
Juliana lifted the bright tangerine note up, inaudibly muttering the first official words before crumpling it up again, mouthing "what the hellhound" and breathing out quickly,  
"Camp meeting at the bonfire tonight. You two in particular have to be there, or Chiron is gonna feed me to the Drakons and i'll come back from the dead just to haunt your asses."  
She pointed at the two and started to back pedal up the hill before Ryan sighed.  
"And why would he want the both of us?"  
July's warm soil eyes hardened into a dark brown obsidian.  
"It's a prophecy. For you. All Mr.D said was 'The Gods are falling, the Gods are falling.'"


	2. Chapter 2

OC Fic **Chapter Two:** A Quest For the Damned (Chasing A Forest of Mist & Bone)

* * *

The bonfire that night was practically buzzing with demigods, all with a glowstick necklace and armed with a weapon, like fireflies of war.  
Despite the many attendees, the only noise was the occasional hushed murmur and the constant crackle of the great, dancing fire, eating at their offerings.  
Nobody spoke for long, all of them grim with the rumor of a Quest floating around. There hadn't been a quest at Camp Half-Blood for 4 years, and there hadn't been a true "hero" in longer. The closest thing Camp Half-Blood had to a "golden boy" (since Percy Jackson swooped in and kicked the term in the backside 9 years ago) was Ryan Blaze, who wasn't very social and was cold towards anyone above the age of 8.  
July took a seat next to her boyfriend Matt, who payed her no attention, instead laughing along with the other Hermes boys. She noticed that even Cade had come to the fire, leaning against the pole in a shadow.  
"Attention, attention!" Mr.D silenced the few soft whispers and swallowed, looking exhausted and stressed.  
"I have grave news…" He began, addressing the entire camp.  
Cade snorted through her nose and tried not to smile, looking down and adjusting her jean vest instead. It was hard to take Mr.D seriously when he was wearing a mickey-mouse rainbow Hawaiian shirt.  
But Mr.D stood shakily and for once didn't sport a drunken smile.  
"Apollo, has many estates, one of which is the Timekeeper's Palace, just south-east of here in the densest parts of forest. We, as well as him, are much displeased to say that it has been taken over." The campers were silent, still trying to put together what was going on.  
Mr.D explained the situation further.  
"The Timekeeper's Palace is home to the Timekeep, a godly device powered by Mist that allows one to travel back in time once every Winter Solstice. This Winter Solstice is approaching rapidly and Zeus himself was dismayed to tell me that this unknown, nameless thief plans on going back in time and changing the fate of the Great Titan War."

Only now did the crowd gasp, erupting with a flurry of remarks of outrage.  
"SILENCE." He commanded, rubbing his temples with his thumbs, and motioning down an Athena girl who bolted up shouting "I volunteer for the quest!"

"The oracle has pre-chosen 5 demigods who fit the profiles requested for the prophecy exactly! The prophecy goes as follows," Mr.D cleared his voice and the sound echoed in the silence of the amphitheater.

"5 demigods  
one who is haunted  
one that is greater  
another unwanted  
but one is a traitor  
on cruel grounds they shall tread  
just 4 demigods  
for one of them's dead  
follow the mist to the Timekeeper's palace  
crack the code, save the realm  
be relieved of a nameless malice."

The crowd erupted once more with exclamations like, "So if we're forced on this quest, we have a chance of being the dead one?!" and "This is damnation!" and even "So who are the 5 demigods!?"  
Mr.D spoke over the angry teenagers, growing impatient.  
"THE 5 DEMIGODS ARE…."  
July had a sick, heavy feeling in her stomach and she felt like a fist was clenched around her heart, squeezing tighter and tighter and tighter-  
"Juliana Williams."  
She stood up, expressionless and like an automaton, ignoring Matt's tugging at the back of her shirt.  
All eyes were on her now.  
Mr.D gave her a sorry look and continued reading names.  
'_That girl was right_' July thought, moving to the middle of the stage, '_This is damnation_.'  
Mr.D continued, nonetheless.  
"Chloe Ann Denning, of the Hades Cabin."  
The crowd was just as silent as a raven-haired girl hopped down from one of the nearby trees, emerald and burnished bronze eyes unreadable. She looked calm, but then again so did July, and July felt like a thousand fireworks were being set off in her gut right now.

"Ryan Blaze."  
No one gasped at that name, it was no surprise the son of Zeus was tied in to this quest too. No one looked shocked or spoke, but they all just stared. For some, it was a glare of envy, for others, a look of pity, knowing he'd just lost his mortal family.  
He walked up on the stage next to July. They didn't know each other at all, they were just names, but he still smiled at her, knowing they were both in the same sinking boat. The Chloe girl just gazed off into the crowd, deep in thought, green eyes lighting up with flecks of gold, like hazel shards of crystal. July thought Chloe was stunning, but in an odd, eerie, entrancing way, like a strange forest creature, or a fawn. She reminded July of starlight.  
But the daughter of Hade's also had a sense of danger to her, for she was awfully clever and had a whip that (after years of practice) had practically become an extension of her arm.  
July had been reactionless when Mr.D called up her name, but the next name made her jump and flinch.  
"Hannah Winters."  
Her bestfriend Will's twin sister.  
She didn't even have to turn to the Hermes boys to hear the panicked, "NO!"  
Hannah was trying to be strong, but she couldn't help the single tear glittering on her cheek.  
Will rushed up to the stage taking Hannah's spot, ignoring Mr.D's objections.

Watching his pleading was heart wrenching, and July almost didn't want to look at her friend.  
"I'll take her place." His jaw was tight and serious, but his chest was heaving with fear.  
"Will, i told you, no volunteers, the oracle has specifically chosen these 5-"  
"Please, Mr.D. She's my twin sister, we're practically the same person! Right July?"  
He turned to her desperately, and suddenly July couldn't speak, everyone waiting for an answer. Her best friend waiting for an answer.  
"I-uh, I um…"

Mr.D freed her of the staring eyes.  
"Fine! Fine! I'll allow it considering you're twins! But if the prophecy fails to work, the fate of the Titan War is on your shoulders, William Winters, and everyone here will cease to exist."  
Will gulped, still quaking and nodded his head, not looking at July.  
Mr.D proceeded to call out the final name.  
"Arabella McCade."  
Everyone whipped their heads around to the shadows, to find Cade, mouth agape letting the toothpick she was chewing on fall to the floor.  
Cade gathered back up her cool and rested her hand on her hammer, waltzing over to the stage and standing by Chloe, who just watched her silently.

Cade appeared to be a little shaken, but her snide half-smile was intact.  
"Okay, so out of the frying pan, into the slightly more hot frying pan i guess? I mean c'mon Mr.D you already had me going to extra training as well as working in the forges! And this whole selection get-up? I mean what is this, the hunger games?!" She whispered almost inaudibly to him.  
July rolled her eyes and Will tried to force a laugh, but was still recovering from the whole "protecting my twin sister from danger" thing that he did a lot.  
"The decision is final. You have 10 minutes to prepare your things and say goodbye to you cabin mates before you leave at 10:30 on the spot." He hissed through teeth and with a thick wine-stentched breath.  
Mr.D turned back to the crowd, who was desperately trying to listen in on the whispers.  
"Disperse! Back to your cabins! All of you!"  
Ryan, being a natural born leader, turned to the rag-tag group of demigods who he was expected to trust his life with.  
"So, i guess 1 of us is dead, 1 of us is a traitor, and the rest have to survive a quest." He muttered.  
"Well that's depressing." Chloe stated bluntly, fiddling with her small knives absentmindedly, and scrunching up her nose at the smell of burning wood.  
"Just peachy." Cade agreed sarcastically.  
July was quiet for once, looking down.  
After a few seconds of silent acceptance, Chloe, Cade, and Ryan left to their cabins to pack up, leaving Will and July both shuffling their feet on the empty stage with no one but the lingering ghost of a crowd.  
"Listen, Will, i'm sorry i didn't say anything when-"  
"No, no, no! It's totally fine, Juliana!" He assured her, dipping his head down to try and look her in the face.  
Will was a nice boy, and he knew what she was thinking, unlike Matt who hadn't even bothered to bid her goodbye.  
She wanted to thank him, but all she could spit out was a quiet, "I don't want to die, Will."  
Will, hugged her, like he always did after she got in a fight with Matt or when she was feeling particularly insecure. He hugged her cautiously, like a brother would.  
"You're not gonna die. I won't let you." He said, even his whisper sounding loud with only the background noise of a dying fire and a few cricket chirps.  
"But if i do, no one would come to my funeral." She exhaled into his shirt, knowing how lame she looked, but too tired to care.  
"I would come." He chuckled softly.  
July pulled away, rubbing at her eyes and laughing.  
"Wow, i feel honored to know you would attend my funeral. That's charming, really." She smiled.  
"Here." Will said, extending an arm out towards her, with something clutched in his fist. He dropped the item into her palm and July lifted it up to the fire light to observe it, the flame casting the shadow of the slim charm all across the empty amphitheater. It was a pure-silver bullet. She smiled at him.

He pulled at his beach-shorts, nervously.  
"I know it's not beautiful, like you are.."  
July let that comment slide by her. 'He's like a brother, i like Matt.' she reminded herself when she felt the faintest flap of a butterfly's wings in her stomach. She often had to remind herself she liked Matt when hanging out with Will. 'Will is sweet and charming, and Matt is reckless and wild. You're reckless and wild.' She'd say to herself.  
"But!" Will offered, grinning with his pearly-whites. "It's tough like you are. And it's pure like you."  
She was about to thank him, slipping the necklace over her head and letting the bullet charm drop into her shirt, when he interrupted her.  
"And i know you're not into the whole orange-golden-sunshine thing so i made sure it was a silver one. Unless you don't like it! Then i could paint it or-"  
"It's perfect, Will."  
July tugged at her sides and she saw Will unconsciously do the same.  
"I should go say goodbye to Hannah, now. See you by the edge of the forest in 8 minutes?"  
She nodded, and he jogged across the stage, hopping off and disappearing into the shadows.

As July headed down the stage, she remembered looking at all of them; Chloe, Ryan, Cade, and Will and remembering the sickening realization that any one of them could be dead by the Winter Solstice in 3 days. That any one of them _would_ be dead.

* * *

The night was the breezy, wintery kind where the sky was a navy rather than a black void, and the night was alive rather than dead like in the summer. So here they were, 5 demigods who barely knew each other, forced into the profiles of a prophecy like puzzle pieces that were jagged, standing before the tree-line of the forest that led out of Camp Half-Blood and into the unknown.

"Welp," Ryan swallowed, scratching his short black hair nervously.  
"Welp." Will agreed, staring up at the great looming black trees that made the 6 foot tall surfer boy look like an ant.  
"Once we enter, there's no turning back." July stated, even her sunny flesh becoming rough with goosebumps.  
But it was Chloe Denning who took the first step forward, a wild smile etched on her lips with moonlight.

To her the forest didn't look dark, it looked scary, yes, but full of the promise of secrets and danger and she ate that stuff up. Cade grabbed onto the shorter girl's wrist, fingertips almost skimming by her whip, and Chloe stiffened at the physical contact, but it was good to know someone else was there, it was almost as comforting as she felt when she was alone with the trees and the birds.

The second the group of 5 entered the forest together, it was like stepping through a portal to a completely new world where Camp Half-Blood and mortals were hundreds of miles away.  
Will was admittedly surprised that Ryan Blaze didn't lead, but he didn't seem too angry about it. He was just silent, icy blue eyes focused on his surroundings.  
Ryan didn't mind Chloe leading because she actually had more than half a brain and she knew her way around these parts.  
The group was supposed to be following a trail of Mist to the Timekeeper's Palace, as the Timekeep was powered by mist and was currently sucking up all the mist within the surrounding 100 square miles. Good thing there were no mortals in this forest, otherwise they'd be able to see everything clearly, every monster, every weapon, and every teenage demigod awkwardly walking around in the middle of nowhere with blood on their clothing.  
Will stayed close behind July, and July rolled her eyes at this, as they navigated around the twisted, thorny branches of black.  
'_I can take care of myself, i don't need a babysitter._' she thought frustratedly, sprinting up ahead with Chloe and Cade.  
That left Will and Ryan guarding the back. Will smiled incredulously at him, and he just nodded back, coolly.

"I can't see." Chloe admitted, coming to a halt by what seemed like the end of the world, just a wall of black where the trees grew so thick even the moonlight couldn't penetrate them. She was right, they'd lost the trail of mist.  
Ryan sighed, pushing through to the front and snapping his fingers together. After a few seconds he generated a few sparks of electric blue light that mirrored that blue of his eyes and danced across his fingertips, flashing the forest of black to life for a couple of seconds, but that's all he could do. He couldn't sustain the light for long.

"Damn." He sighed.  
"Anyone smart enough to bring a flash light or a medieval torch or something, because i think i'm slowly becoming Helen Keller over here." Cade said, obviously bothered by the situation.  
Everyone looked to Chloe and July.  
July shrugged, smoothing out the wrinkles in her reddish camp shirt.  
"I didn't expect us to be traveling in the middle of the night." Chloe admitted.  
They all just stood in the cold darkness, not even sure exactly where the other demigods were standing.  
Will was the one to speak again.  
"Wait… I think i see a bit of moonlight over there. Maybe it's a clearing?"  
July patted his arm, as a friendly gesture, but he just stared at her hand on his skin, perplexed.  
"Nice job, Will. Maybe i can start a fire with electro over here and we can set up camp?"  
Ryan furrowed his brow at being called "electro", i mean, "hot stuff" he'd gotten before by a couple of Aphrodite girls, but "electro?"  
Chloe nodded, and grabbed Cade's hand, motioning for her to link arms with the rest of the demigods in the dark, leading them to the clearing. As a Hade's child she could feel underground where the tree roots let up.

They were treading for a couple of minutes towards the faint glimpse of moonlight before Cade spoke to Chloe.  
"So, a Hade's kid? You seem pretty foresty to me."  
Chloe scoffed.  
"Foresty?"  
"Yeah. Like aren't Hade's kids supposed to be like punk rock and death and stuff?"  
Cade sounded actually curious, and Chloe didn't take much to offense to anything, so she explained herself nonchalantly.  
"I don't like the forest just because it's alive. I like it because it's peaceful, and i can hear my own thoughts. But don't get me wrong, dying can be beautiful too." She was going to stop there, but Cade still seemed slightly baffled. Chloe sighed and gave a couple of examples.  
"Death. Decease. Like a fading bruise or a corpse turning green with flowers in its eye sockets. Or a colorful kaleidoscope filled with thin little flower petals, veiny and crisp with death-"  
"That's disgusting." Cade interrupted, but she didn't say it unkindly. In fact, she had a twisted little smile on her face. Chloe perplexed her. Chloe Denning managed to impress Arabella McCade a little bit.  
"I know." Chloe said, simply.  
"You know what, you're pretty interesting, Chloe." Will added on, listening in.  
July rolled her eyes again, this time Ryan joining her. '_Of course nice guy has something to say_.', he thought with a grin.

"Okay, we're here." Ryan announced, just as they broke into the clearing, the lighting tremendously better, with moonlight carving little white bark marks and deep black shadows into the surrounding trees.  
The clearing was about 30 feet by 50 feet of dirt, and the group was grateful for it.  
Chloe set down her bag with a clank.  
"I'll set up the tents you for guys, if Blaze and July start the campfire."  
July and Ryan nodded to each other and got to work, July summoning faint orange heat to her fingertips and Ryan sparking up as much electric havoc as he could muster.  
With a crackle and a muffled roar, the clearing became drenched light. The orange fire glow replacing the eerie blue one of the moon.  
July high-fived Ryan and even him, being a tough guy, smiled a bit at their accomplishment.  
Chloe's hands were tiny and looked delicate from afar, but up close you could see the small, well-earned callouses from climbing trees and fiddling with her knives, which was an unsettling thing she did often. In the matter of minutes she had 5 tents up.  
Just as they all threw down their weapons near the fire and headed to their tents Chloe interrupted,  
"Oh no you don't!"  
July's calves were screaming from the long hike over dark menacing branches and Will's hands were dripping red from grabbing onto thorns bigger than his fingers.  
"What?" Ryan asked, you could hear the leadership in his voice, maybe a little threat in there as well.  
"We need someone to take first watch." Chloe stated, one hand on hip, the other twirling a knife dangerously close to her jawline. Chloe was the shortest in the group, but she was still proportional, with a dainty waist, plump petal-pink lips and shockingly black hair that contrasted with her strong green eyes.  
"She's right." Ryan agreed, turning away from the girl. She didn't blink much, she was observant, and it was unnerving.  
"But the fire light stretches all the way, lighting up all 50 feet of the clearing." July argued, eager to hop in her sleeping bag.

"Sorry Sleeping Beauty," Cade retorted, "With the amount of land we just covered, some monster, some where is bound to have caught onto our scent trail."  
July reluctantly nodded, and let out a large intake of air.  
She was about to reach back down for her sword when Will placed a hand on her shoulder.  
"You guys sleep." He said, addressing the whole group, but only looking at July.  
July weakly smiled to show some form of gratitude and dropped the sword, the shining sun on it's hilt catching the firelight for a brief second and shimmering, before dying out again.  
Ryan looked at Will accusingly, then retired to his tent along with the rest of the demigods.

Will decided to climb a tree to get a better view on the world in the nighttime. Chloe recommended it, and he wanted to get away from the group for a little while. There was too much tension, too many clashing personalities.  
They hadn't even fought together before, and they were expected to take down a nameless force at some Timekeeper's Palace and save the world.  
_'Minotaur shit.'_ Will thought as he scaled up the tree, grunting.  
He knew from experience that at least Cade and Ryan wouldn't be able to fight together. They hated each other! And they both acted like leaders on the battlefield and training grounds, fighting as individual heroes rather than a team. They wouldn't last 5 seconds.  
Will's orange camp shirt was plastered on his back with a cold sweat by the time he reached the highest branch in the young redwood tree.  
He finally allowed himself to relax, looking down on the quaint little camp, and smiling, knowing that July was safe below him.

He knew she liked Matt. She knew she liked Matt. But why did his heart stop beating, not only when she touched him, but every damn time he saw her?  
Will was jerked out of his trance by a faint gurgling noise. It sounded like a snarl.  
Will perked his head up and looked over the rest of the vast never-ending forest.  
The monstrous noise seemed to be coming from miles away, the beast was probably somewhere along the horizon line.  
He relaxed, but did so timidly, still guarded, with his hand clenching his sword so tight his knuckles were white.  
Will never felt so vulnerable and unsure in his life, but all he could think of is how glad he was that his sister Hannah wasn't in his place.

She had seemed angry when he came to say goodbye to her, but he really couldn't tell because she was speaking through choked, choppy sobs.  
The constant screeching and squealing of the monster wasn't fading away, and Will was sweating in his rest.  
"Oh gods…"  
Will uttered out the two words with an ever-growing horror.  
The monster screeches weren't coming from the horizon line.  
They were coming from the camp ground.  
The campground where Juliana was sleeping.

* * *

**_A/N: Hi guys! I know this chapter was long, but i hope you like where it's going! Big fight action next chapter, but the next one i'll slow it down a bit to add some more group dynamic and personality and maybe a lil backstory to your OCs. Review!_**

_(Sidenote: Natsuki will be added in the final 3 chapters, as her character doesn't come into play until they get to the Timekeeper's Palace. Don't worry though! Nat will play a key part in the Game of Mazes and will be a total bamf, so yay! See you then?) _


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N:**__ Thanks so much to Princess Of Flames for giving me some really rad advice for the fic, and yes! Man-braclets are awesome, and the studs add 500% more badassery! Okay, okay, enough of this! Read the story and enjoy :)_

* * *

**Chapter Three:** When Pigs Fly

Will had a million panicked thoughts screaming at him in his mind, rushing past and crashing into each other like a riot and making it hard to focus.

But he always had the ever-approaching quake of what sounded like a stampede headed their way to remind him to act quickly.  
He raced down the tree, going so fast he'd fumble over the occasionally branch and end up with bark splintering his palms and scrapes coloring his face with wetness. His heart sank deeper into his gut all the while, for even at this rate he knew he'd never make it.

"JULIANA!" He wanted to make the scream as big as possible, but out loud in the empty silence of night his voice sounded vulnerable and terrified.  
His hands were shaking so badly is was a surprise he didn't fall out of the tree.  
From his view up top, Will couldn't see anything, but he could hear the wheezing crackle of entire trees being crashed down like dominos on the horizon. Whatever was coming was big.

"What the hellhound is going on-" Ryan emerged from his tent, hazy eyed and bed-headed, but was cut off by his own yelp as an enormous mass of the darkest browns swooshed just meters away from the clearing, the beast crushing trees beneath it and making a new clearing.  
As the monster passed, in a swish of colors, a gush of air blew Ryan off of his feet, and he barely even had the time to raise his forearm to cover his face from the cloud of embers than were spewed from the fire.  
Ryan scrambled up, scraping his knees on twigs doing so, and turned around to see what was rearing up to charge again.

Ryan turned to Will up in the tree desperately and shouted, "It's a giant freaking boar, Will!"  
Ryan's expression looked frantic as he struggled to get the girls up and out of bed, but Will realized with awe that the fear wasn't for his own hide. Ryan was afraid for the rest of the gang.

Chloe, Cade, and Ryan now stood side by side, unsure how to take down a boar bigger than the Big House, but their panicked conversing was cut short by the boar charging forward again, like brute lightning, this time scarcely missing exactly where Chloe was standing.  
Chole tried to whip it as it charged by, but the force of the wind sent her flying backwards, and the whip got snagged on the beast's fur, almost tearing her arm off.  
July was just getting out of her tent, sword in hand as the beast reared up again. This time it didn't look like it was going to miss.

"JULY MOVE!" Will shouted, mentally hissing _'screw it',_ before throwing his body down the next ten feet of space between the branch he was perched on and the ground.  
Will winced before he even hit the floor, knowing it'd be hell.  
The force sent a rod of hot steel pain right through Will's spine and his knee joints made an unhealthy creaking noise.  
Gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain, Will sprinted over and knocked July off her feet and on top of the tent, mere seconds before they felt the wall of fast wind gush over their heads. She'd probably have a black eye and a back injury, but the only part of her body he cared about right now was her beating heart, that was currently pumping like a hummingbird's.  
The next time the beast charged it was evident fighting it was no use, and every time they let it charge it was another chance at them being trampled.

"I counted 7 seconds between each charge!" Chloe shouted, attempting at throwing knives at it, only to have the wind of the boar's passing throw them back at her, and a huge chunk of uplifted soil hit her in the gut.  
"MOVE!" Ryan ordered, his face expressionless. It was the face of war, wear it or perish.

Chloe gestured them over behind the shamble of a tree, as the trunk was bent in half, with menacing knives of wood poking outwards.  
Her hair was wild as the winds, a hurricane of black and she had scrapes from flying twigs clawed across both her cheeks like indian war paint.  
They heard the boar shriek, and the air throbbed with the force, sending a morbid tone through the air.  
They spoke quickly.

"It's a freaking pig! We're so not getting killed by a pig, guys! I mean, c'mon that's like getting murdered by Humpty Dumpty or Strawberry Shortcake or something!" Cade complained, actual dread lining her eyes.  
"Guys, really! What the hellhound is THAT?!" Ryan turned to Chloe for an answer.  
Chloe was already speaking before the question left his lips.  
"It's a 30 foot Greek Boar! The Erymanthian Boar in old mythology had tusks described as giant canoes, so guys, i would hide behind trees between attacks!"  
Cade shook her head as if confused. "You're saying canoes, all i hear is bacon."  
"THIS IS NOT THE PLACE, NOR THE TIME CADE!" Will spat, violently nodding his chin towards the boar who was now stamping it's feet in the newly flattened clearing.  
"YES. Let's focus on not getting trampled on!" July added, unsheathing her blade, a second too late.  
Their 7 seconds were up.

They didn't even see the beast this time, just a flash of hooves and they were lifted off the ground by the rush of air, but the group struggled back onto their feet, weapons drawn and angrier than before.

But Cade had had enough planning.  
"Let's not give it a chance to crush us again!" Cade sprinted as fast as her wiry legs could carry her, ember veined war hammer catching air and flame for a few seconds as she raised it in the air. The boar seem quite surprised at the bold move, speed and brute force being the boar's advantages, but there wasn't much the demigod could do once she got to the boar.

Instead Cade moved rapidly fast, darted inbetween it's hooves to avoid being trampled and beating on the only part of the monster she could reach: it's legs.

Ryan tried to do the same, slicing the tough skin of the boar, almost to the bone, and while doing so coating his two imperial gold blades with black sludge.

"This isn't working-OOF!" Ryan bumped shoulders with Cade hard and fast, bone against bone.  
July could hear the arguing and contradicting commands from to two from way across the clearing. The two demigods, right below the boar's underbelly didn't even see what was going on was the boar rutted its front hoof against the dirt.

July grunted, reaching out and pulling them out of the now stampeding boar's death-path.

"Hey lovebirds!" She spoke in-between her panting, "Stop fighting each other, or so help me if it were day time i would put some serious sun-ray burns on your asses!"

And right then, in the midst of the dirt and the wind and the chaos, that's when it hit Chloe.

"Guys!" She shouted, running the opposite direction from the boar and into the forest.  
"Turn and around and fight!" Ryan demanded, seething.  
Chloe ignored him and waved over Will. She would need help to carry out this plan.

Ryan only fully understood what the hellhound she was doing when Will and her lugged out a 20 foot, razor sharp broken tree trunk.

They wouldn't have to worry about killing the beast anymore, it would kill itself for them.

"Hurry!" July shouted, sprinting over and pushing the branch with all her might next to Will, who's once lightly bronzed skin was now sickly pallid with exhaustion.  
But 7 seconds had long passed and the had their dagger of nature was nowhere near the middle of the clearing.  
"We have to move now, we're not gonna make it!" Chloe voiced.  
"No! Keep pushing!" Ryan replied, eyelids shut tight and veins popping out on his forehead.

The beast charged anyways, BOOM! thudding into the tree trunk's shards of wood at an awkward angle, impaling itself from the side with an echoing squeal that sent birds fleeing from the forest.  
Blood splayed across the entire 50 feet of clearing in billions of miniature dots of black and red.  
The 5 demigods fell to the ground fatigued, and splitting out the metallic taste of monster blood.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:** Mooncall

* * *

About an hour passed, day breaking. The sun was only a fuzzy dot through a curtain of fading night-haze, and none of them moved. All of them had their backs on the blood sodden ground, and eyes facing up to the heavens.

"Nice thinking." Ryan finally breathed out to Chloe.  
Chloe squirmed in her spot, attempting to sit up, and brush the now crusty boar blood from her black silk hair.  
"Thanks…" She replied, uncertain of what else to say.  
Will got up, a pang of pain engulfing his knees from the fall, before fading away like the night sky did.  
He offered a hand to July and she took it.

Ryan and Cade later joined them with unreadable looks on their faces, for they knew that this was just the beginning.  
All in content silence, they walked around the massive slab of meat that was the Erymanthian Boar and began to pack up their half-crumpled and half-bent tents.  
Will wanted to offer some sort of reassurance to Juliana, but he could barely calm himself down as it was.

"Looks like we lost the trail of the magic-cloud again…" Cade sighed, beyond disappointment.  
"It's called mist. How long have you been at Camp Half-Blood?" Chloe questioned, starting to blindly follow Ryan like the rest.  
Cade ignored the question, too worn out to care.

Out of nowhere, Will laughed, a hushed one that hinted at craze.  
"What's so funny?" July asked, life returning back to the group slowly, and trauma fading.  
Will continued looking ahead even as he answered her.  
"We look like serial killers and we are headed- according to the map-ah yes! Straight into the city!"

Ryan squinted at Will, turning away from the black leather bracelet-cuff he was fiddling with.  
"What?" He snatched the map from Will, and Will let him. Will was pretty passive about a lot of things. Pretty much anything that wasn't his sister.  
Ryan threw it back at Will, but Cade could see him mouth _"shit"_.

"What?" Cade asked, raising her eyebrows, brown eyes taking on a red tint when exposed to rising sun's glow, making them look like a shimmering arizona cliff-side.  
Ryan didn't have to answer as the line of thick forest broke into smaller patches revealing the side of a 7-11 by a ruddy gutter.

"Welcome to the city." Will exhaled sarcastically, carrying both his bags and July's, much to her displeasure, as she was constantly tugging for them back. But when Will landed on top of her, he had cracked her back pretty badly, plus with her whining and tugging at him it was an excuse for her to be touching him. Will smiled at the thought, then shook it away guiltily._ 'She likes Matt.'_ He scolded himself.

Cade gasped with a smile, pointing to a chubby guy with stubble and a chili-cheese stain caked on his shirt. The only mortal in sight.

"What are you-?" Chloe began, but Cade was already rushing over calling out, "Excuse me, sir!"

Will turned to Ryan, bemused, and Ryan shrugged.  
"Her people, i guess?"  
Chloe snorted. She seemed to like any joke that was offending someone.  
_"I'll ask him about the mist!"_ Cade mouthed, turning back to the man excitedly.

Will groaned and chased after her, tugging her by the wrist back into the group huddle.  
"No! Cade, don't ask him about the mist, he'll think we're psychopaths!" Will whisper-shouted.  
Cade shouted right back.  
"We are psychopaths! We're going on a quest to a God's palace and we're just winging it as we go! Of course we're psychopaths-!" Cade was interrupted by July.  
"Hey, it's not like we have anything to lose! I say we go for it!"  
Will frowned at July's agreement with Cade, but let Cade go to the fat man anyways.

"Couldn't she at least chosen some one who didn't look so gods-damn sketchy?!" Ryan muttered under his breath.

Cade put on the sweetest smile she could manage.  
The man's eyes shot wide open and he dropped the hot dog he was eating.  
Cade became increasingly aware that she was covered in blood splatters and her hair looked like a hobo's.  
_'Right,'_ she remembered, _'No mist.'_

"Are you okay, Miss?" He asked, in a gross gurgling voice, while picking at his belly button.  
She tried her hardest not to gag and just batted her eyelashes instead.  
"Um, no actually, i was wondering if you've seen any like-"  
"This plan is so stupid." Ryan whispered to Will.  
"Like uh- like strange, long, low to the ground clouds anywhere that kind of resemble a trail?" Cade motioned with her hands a path way and July looked down embarrassed, rubbing her temples.

Cade waited for an answer, and to be honest didn't expect one, but the man returned the smile and stood up with his belly rippling from the movement.

"Actually I think I have! It was the strangest thing…" He scratched at his stubble thoughtfully before turning to the young girl again.

"Yeah! Do you want me to show you and your friends?"

Cade whirled around with a victorious smile and gave the group a thumbs up.  
They hesitantly joined her, Will looking like a lost puppy and Ryan with a face of steel.  
Chloe was grimacing at her surroundings, not very happy to be out of the forest.

They all turned to Ryan nervously, and with a simple nod, next thing they knew they'd been following the man deeper and deeper into the forest and the once rising sun was low on the horizon again.  
But could you blame them? A 300 pound guy with a star-wars shirt didn't exactly look like a threat.

"We've been walking for hours!" Cade whined, throwing her head back in the air and swinging her war hammer over her shoulder dramatically.  
Will didn't say anything, but he couldn't argue with that. They'd reached the city at 9:50 am and it was now 6:42 pm, the sky glowing a darker and darker shade of blue each second they trudged through the never ending forest.

"Are you sure you know what she was talking about?" July questioned again, pulling her smooth caramel locks into a wavy side-braid.  
The man nodded with a sly grin, bringing their party to a halt, much to the demigods' relief.  
"Looks like you've reached your final destination." The man's voice sounded different, grizzlier.

A shiver of cold air crawled underneath Ryan's skin, the same shiver than had woken him from his sleep during the night of the boar attack.

"What do you mean, we're in the middle of the forest again! Where's the cloud?!" Ryan's voice was more panicked than he had intended it to sound.  
But the man spoke coolly and calmly. "I am a man honest to my word. It should be just down the lane, but you demigods won't be going any further…"  
All eyes turned to the man, as he began to twitch in his place, awkwardly squirming in his skin, but feet not moving from the ground.  
The group instinctively all took a step backwards, in sync, still trying to piece together what was happening to the man.  
When Ryan spoke, he spoke hesitantly.  
"Wait, what did you say your name was again?"  
With a gurgle of spit, a twist of a swelling neck, and a sputter of blubbering skin, the almost-man spit out,  
"LYCAON!"  
The demigods felt like they were supposed to cower in fear at the name, but they honestly had no idea what he was talking about, so they just stood there and frowned.

"What?!"  
"What."  
"Wha-?!"  
Chloe broke the cloud of confusion with a shout.  
"RUN! HE'S A LYCANTHROPE! A WEREWOLF! RUN!" She whipped her whip in the sky to wake them up, the cracking noise snapping them into a sprint away.

"YOU COULD'VE MENTIONED THAT EARLIER, YOU'RE PRACTICALLY A WALKING ENCYCLOPEDIA!" Cade shouted, swinging her hammer and circling the beast with Ryan and July. The first fight was a fluke, they were literally bumping into each other, but now they moved like one fluid machine. Dodging and covering each others backs.  
The ever changing monster-man on the receiving end of the blows should be in ribbons by now, but he was still lunging at them, teeth bared and jolting backwards and forwards in his own skin, becoming a beast that was more than human.

July grunted, covering Ryan's back as the beast leapt over his head, clothing in shreds, and slammed in the hilt of her sword into it's nose, but her sword ricocheted off his skin like metal on metal.  
The demigods were growing tired of this result-less sparring.  
"It's not working!" July shouted, interrupted by a claw to the face, the claw stopped by one of Ryan's long swords.  
"Obviously!" Will retorted, trying to sneak behind the halfling that was now growing bigger and bigger.  
"Guys," Will said weakly, blood caking his forehead and shining his forearms, "If that Lycanthrope fully changes into a werewolf, we aren't making it out alive."

If Chloe weren't struggling to stay on her feet as the beast pounded against her uneffective small-blades she would've cried out.  
They'd come too far to end like this.  
"Wait…" she muttered to herself, then speaking louder.  
"WAIT! Lycanthropes can be killed by silver! SILVER GUYS, SILVER!" Chloe was shoved to the ground by the beast, that was now fully transformed and on all fours, head coming up past hers.  
It growled just like a normal wolf would, but this one's growl was deep, and smart, and ancient, hungering for only the flesh of the god's kin.

"We don't have silver!" Ryan screamed, condemned and demoralized, looking into the face of death, and just knowing.  
Ryan's head thudded on the forest floor with a hollow crash and the beast pinned him down with two paws.

"No…" Juliana mouthed, before pulling out the silver bullet necklace Will had given her and screaming louder, for the beast to hear, "NOOOO!"

It seemed as if all eyes in the forest were on her now. Will swallowed too petrified for her sake to say anything.  
She smiled at him, never appearing scared, even as she knew her plan was crazy and she could very well be the dead one in the prophecy.  
_'To tartarus with the prophecy.'_ she thought bravely, even though she didn't feel very brave, dropping her weapon to the ground and flinching at its echoing clatter against the rock.  
"JULY WHAT ARE YOU DO-" Will began, taking a step towards her.  
"SHHHH! SHHH! JUST-Just let me do this…." She motioned for him to halt, knowing that if he knew her plan he'd try and stop her and they'd never get away.

She'd probably cry if he hugged her, so she was appreciative of the distance between her and the group.

It was just her and the wolf now.

July didn't know if it was her imagination or the darkness, but she swore she could've seen the massive werewolf smile at her boldness, the sinister toothy kind, as it turned towards her like it would to its prey.  
They all expected the werewolf to charge the poor, vulnerable, and weaponless July Williams.  
Think again.

July closed her eyes and held her breath, racing head on towards the werewolf with a fist packed with a silver bullet extended in front of her.  
The werewolf barely had time to eagerly unhinge its jaws before July shoved the entire length of her arm down its throat, gasping at the hot shock of searing, burning pain as it's teeth scraped all the way down her forearms, creating a circlet of blood running down one side of her body.

She could feel the werewolf's throat convulse and gag, but she just forced her arm down deeper, crying out openly and finally penetrating the soft, sore throat-flesh of the wolf with the butt of the bullet.  
The wolf growled and jerked it's head back, making its teeth rake against July's skin once more and making her jump, blood sputtering weakly from her veins. July fell, entire arm painted in red, looking like slimy, wet muscle, rather than the bronzed skin of a sun God's daughter.  
Will screamed, a scream that was both gut-wrenching and heart shattering, and blindly stumbled over to July's body, tears blurring his vision into a red smear.  
Ryan kicked the bucking wolf that was choking on silver away from her body hostile and vengeful, all mercy fleeing when he saw July lying there, jaw slack in her own pool of blood.  
Chloe was the only one who didn't have tears welling up in her eyelids, her face was blank as a nameless grave, with a hand covering her mouth in shock.  
Cade was exactly the opposite, letting her emotions drown her, falling to her knees and shaking her head devastated.

Will was far beyond crushed, hands shaking so badly he could barely lift up her body in his arms.

She was limp.

* * *

_**A/N: Okay, okay sorry! I did 2 battle scenes in a row, i'm a horrible person, but i promise next chapter is gonna be a campfire truth or dare one! There will be some Jill (Juliana & Will) action and some really deep backstory type action! Please just stick with me! Okay! Make sure to tell me if i'm writing your character wrong, and i'll totally fix it up, yo! :)**_

_**-timelordXatXhearts**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:** Your Truth, My Dare

Will wanted to say something.  
For gods' sake, Will wanted to say anything!  
But as July's lips stayed still, all Will's lips could do were stay trembling and silent.  
When his words finally did come back to him, it was a mere whisper, to himself, or to her, he did not know.  
"J-Juliana?"  
July's eyes bolted open, wide, white, and bloodshot making Will jump.

Her face was petrified in an expression of sheer fear, only calming when she took her first breath again.  
"Wi-Will i-"  
"No, no, no! Shhhh…. Shhhh, just stay still, stay here…." Will said softly into her hair, although the sleek honey locks were now clumped with a browning red, and smelt of musty blood.  
_'As if i could go anywhere else.'_ She thought, and if she wasn't bleeding out she may have even rolled her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, it was supposed to be me…" Will had his head buried in her shoulder, but she could tell by his shaking and the rawness of his voice that he was crying.  
A sorrowful smile escaped her lips.  
"It's okay," she was trying to reassure him, but it only sounded like false comfort coming from her half-conscious lips. Maybe it was because she was groggy and on the brink of a black-out, but July swore that if she could get up, she would kiss the sandy-copper haired boy right then and there.

When Will brought his head up to look at her, his face was contorted with guilt.  
"I thought i lost you. I'm so, so sorry, i mean- your arm!" It just looked like a bloody stump to him.

"Hey," she smiled, a goofy ironic one, "I promise you i have fingers, and just shut up and look at my wicked scars!" She tried to lift up her arm, that was streaked with red claw-like marks of the teeth scraping down the length of her wrist, but winced and laughed weakly.  
Cade was watching their whole interaction with a befuddlement, but Will was smiling at her like she was the sun, for he was her stars.

* * *

The embers from the fire glowed upwards like dainty little fairies, fading out fast with the slightest brush from the navy lake that was the sky above, and being forgotten just as fast.  
July was lightheaded and swimming with content on ambrosia, swaying next to Will and staring into the small, soft, flames.  
That's how everyone was now, coming that close to having July killed, it was like playing cards with death.  
Chloe was up in some tree, and Cade could tell by the way Ryan was sharpening his blades and gritting his teeth that was scolding himself for letting things with the Lycanthrope get that far.  
'Poor little hero.' Chloe thought, watching the fire from above with a forced laugh.  
Sometimes she thought she was too harsh, like a tornado, and other times she thought she was too passive, too invisible, like a soft wind tugging on the back of your shirt and blowing past. Most of the time she didn't have a clue who she was.

"Okay, so who died?" Cade exclaimed, standing up on the log she was sitting on and addressing the whole camp.  
The other 4 demigods just looked at her with a frown.  
"C'mon! Let's lighten the mood! If we're gonna be stuck here in camp for the rest of the night watching that stinking trail of mist, i say we have a little fun! How about a game?" Cade plopped back down on her log eagerly, waiting for someone to start spouting out suggestions, all the while tapping the handle of her hammer impatiently.

"A game?" Ryan sounded disgusted, but maybe that was just his reaction to most things and to Cade. "What? We're in the middle of a monster-infested forest in the dead of night, do you want to play duck duck goose or something?" Ryan mocked her, continuing to sharpen his two imperial gold blades.  
Cade just threw the snark right back at him.  
"No, lightning-face, i said let's play a game, not lets act like giant two year olds." She shook her head sarcastically at him.

"Did you just call me lightning-face? Wow, if it's possible, your insults are actually getting worse!"  
"You're one to talk! And yeah i called you lightning-face! Because your face-" she spoke choppily for dramatic effect,

"Looks like. It got hit. By **lightning**. And you always act like you've got a bolt of lightning stuck up your-"

"Okay! Okay! Easy there, tiger." Will motioned them both down, and as the routine peace-keeper in the group, it was expected from him.

"How about truth or dare?" July offered with an almost-devious smile.

Everyone scootched closer to the fire, circling in together and joining the game silently. Even Chloe sighed and jumped down from her tree-branch with a swoosh of obsidian hair and the straightening of a wrinkled army-jacket.

Ryan was about to ask Chloe something, but July shook a finger from her good hand at him. The nail was painted gold.  
"No you don't! We play by the Aphrodite cabin rules."  
Will groaned, Ryan threw one of his swords down angrily, and Chloe just said bluntly, "I have like 2 friends max., can someone explain this to me?"

Cade spoke for everyone to hear. "It's pretty much like the normal truth or dare, you go in a circle and take turns, except if you don't want to do a dare you can pass by taking off one clothing item."  
Chloe's face washed over with white and Ryan chuckled quietly at her.

"Okay! Enough! Let's do this!" July rubbed her hands together and turned to face Ryan.  
"Ryan, i dare you to say which girl you like the most here, and no. Will does not count!"  
Will playfully punched her in the shoulder, but Ryan had his shirt off before she finished the dare.

The girls laughed and Cade mouthed, _"Wuss…"_ under her breath.  
Will's turn next, and he would take full advantage of it.  
For once they felt like teenagers again, and excepting the blood splotching Cade's gray hoodie and denim vest, and July's red-soaked cast they actually looked like teenagers too.  
Will turned to July and she turned right back towards him, sitting as close as possible.  
She raised her eyebrow at him and spoke formally.  
"Yes, William?"

Will's smile was gleaming.  
"Truth or-"  
"Dare." She finished his question with her answer.

"Juliana Williams, i dare you to kiss the most attractive person in the room, and no, you can't kiss yourself."  
July suddenly got a lot more fidgety and nervous.  
"You all have to close your eyes!" She objected.  
Will shut his close tight, not daring to peek and spoil the possible moment.  
He was almost surprised at the soft, warm, and wet pressure of tender lips on his forehead, that were gone the second they made contact with him.

"Open." July stated calmly, chin-up and sitting back down next to Will.  
Will was about to lean down to her and return the favor when Ryan spoke.  
"Wow, July! All i get is a peck on the forehead?" He played.  
Will froze.

Chloe laughed and clapped her hands together.  
"Ha! She kissed you on the forehead too? Hey, I thought i was special!" She joked, forest green eyes dancing with amusement.  
Cade narrowed her eyes at July, who was pleased with her little trick.  
"So you kissed all of us on the forehead? Well played, July. What a player, man!" Cade exclaimed, resulting the the entire group but Will, laughing softly.

"Ryan next!" July announced, eager to change the subject.  
She was just playing a joke, but when she turned to Will he didn't turn back.

Ryan, expectantly, moved sideways in his log seat to address Cade.  
_'Surprise, surprise…'_ Cade thought, expecting Ryan to dare her to jump off a cliff or something.  
Instead he came at her with a more joking approach.  
"Cade i want to give you a truth." He said, grinning  
"Why the heck not." She exhaled, pretending to be unaffected when in reality her heart was pounding.

"Why do you have no friends?!"  
She could tell by his smart little smirk that he was only joking.  
Ryan was prepared for any type of comeback she would spin at him, but his smile start to fade into a confused half-grin when she began to speak in a low voice, looking at the ground.  
She was shedding her armor of jokes and comebacks. Cade was becoming Arabella again.

"Well," she began, almost laughing at what she was about to do. But if she were the "dead one" in this prophecy, she'd at least want someone to know, so she could pretend that someone would care.

"It was always just my mom and I, wait-no! Scratch that, it was always just me. Being alone? Yeah i could deal, you know, i knew my mom had to support us and that was why she was gone all the time, so i just kind of accepted it as a kid. Being alone was okay. I even liked it. But being lonely? Now that's what really just slowly eats at you alive, just me and my thoughts…. And the inside of my head was a monster that i was stuck with every time the lights went out and every time my mom didn't come home for a couple of days. We lived in poverty, in homeless shelters sometimes, but we always had each other. Then she died, well sort of. I was 8, i just woke up and she wasn't there, and that was normal. They announced her death as a murder and when i found out i was heart broken, i realized just how small and unimportant i really was. I found out how lonely a messed-up kid in foster care could really be…. I was 8, and i had to mourn and grieve."  
July was about to cut in with a, "I'm so sorry to hear that.", but Cade kept on talking, even laughing, sadly to herself.

"Welp! Three years later when i was 11, my 7th set of foster parents just kicked me out and i was going to get a snack when i ran into my Mom working the snack counter at a strip club 4 towns over… I mourned for her. Apparently my mom had run into major financial trouble and needed a quick escape even if it meant abandoning me…."

For a while the group had been silent, Ryan the most, but July spoke now for the sake of letting Cade know that they were listening.  
"What did you say to her?"  
Cade was still looking at the ground, and she answered with an incredulous laugh that sounded choked.  
"I bought my freaking skittles and i left."  
There was another pause, but the questions didn't matter anymore, for Arabella McCade was long gone and had put up her armor facade again, becoming the witty and outgoing "Cade" once more.  
Will tried.  
"No, but what did you do?"  
Cade was persistent.  
"What did i do? Well, not my homework that's for sure!"  
She laughed, but it was forced.  
"Now, let's change the subject before this truth or dare game turns into a funeral."

The group broke out of their mournful trace, nodding and shuffling back into normal sitting positions.  
July spoke with a newfound peppiness.  
"Aaand Ann Denning," Chloe cringed at her full name, "You are up!"  
Chloe looked around thoughtfully before turning to July.  
"July! I dare you to climb that tree."  
Chloe whirled around and pointed to the one she was just up a few moments earlier.  
July sighed and lifted her arm cast up, reminding Chloe that a disabled slug would easier climb a tree than her.

Ryan pretended to make a sympathetic face, but his gleeful little grin ruined the act.  
"Oh! Ouch! That means Juliana over here has to take off a clothing item, and considering she's barefooted, looks like someone will be going pants-less or shirtless!" Ryan was practically cackling at the idea, and Will looked away, still hurt over the kissing incident.

Fear crept into July's eyes and laced her words.  
"No, no, no! Please don't make me do this guys!"  
Cade was laughing her head off.  
"What's the big deal?" Chloe questioned. It wasn't like she was naked underneath.  
But July was still panicking.  
"Please, no! Will! Will, please don't make me." She turned to Will, eyes pleading for someone, but he still wouldn't even glance at her.

Ryan motioned his fingers upwards at her shirt.  
"Off." he said, not particularly interested, but wanted everyone to play the game fair.

July had her eyelids clenched closed tightly, and her arms were shaking as she lifted them above her head, whimpering.  
Only did she let the tear fall when the shirt was off and she had her arms hugging and covering her bare stomach.  
Her stomach was covered with pale little cut-scars, slicing in every direction across her abdomen and looking like moon-grass.  
The largest of the slices stretched from her diaphragm all the way to her hip bone.  
They looked faded, like traces of old scars, but July was stilling tremoring and hugging herself.  
Ryan got up and attempted to hand her both her shirt back and his jacket, but she shook her head at them, speaking instead.

"I was 11. The same age Cade was when she found out about her mom… Me, my mom, and my adopted little sister Tara were going on a camping trip in the redwoods up by California. Long story short, i made it and they didn't. ...I don't even deserve to be here….." The last bit she said in the smallest of whispers, so that only Will could hear.

"The cyclops killed my little sister quickly, leaving only a few pieces of her hair behind, but i can't say the same for my mom. I woke up when i heard her screaming for help, but i was too scared to come. I still remember finally coming out to the cyclops and hearing the big one grab me by the collar and say, 'Let's have some fun.' They started slicing at my stomach with blunt little rock-knives, and the first cut i didn't even feel because i was screaming so loud and my head was pounding so hard. They only stopped when another one of them said to the big one, 'Hey, don't play with your food!'. They all laughed at that and i don't remember how i got away. I wanna say it was my dad, but it was nighttime, and i also wanna say i escaped by bravely fighting them off, but i have two gravestones with my family's names on it to prove otherwise…"  
July's voice was just as low as Cade's when she told her story, and eventually she let Will slip the red shirt over her head.  
She couldn't face the group again.

"C'mon…" Will whispered into her ear, guiding her up with his arms, for hers were still clutched around her stomach.  
He walked her over to his tent.

By the time they'd both sat down, her breathing had calmed and it was silent.

He spoke first.  
"Sorry i was mad about the forehead thing. I know i was just being a stupid sensitive ass-hat."  
July chuckled, rubbing at her eyes.  
"Don't be, i couldn't even finish my story! It's all those eyes on me. Especially Chloe, hers look right into my soul or something, i swear..."  
They laughed together, sitting indian-style and sighing.  
"Her eyes are really pretty though…" July admitted, gaze drifting to Will's lips, before flickering away at his notice.

"So are yours." Will finished, eyes soft on hers.  
"Mine? Pfft! Mine are just brown."

"What the Hades are you talking about, Juliana?!" Will exclaimed flinging his hands into the air, genuinely shocked.  
Juliana stared back at him with bewilderment, crossing her legs and holding her breath.

"Just brown?! 'Just brown' my ass! Your eyes are the most beautiful eyes in the world! They're like a clear glass of dark amber whiskey with the sunlight shining through it! Th-They're like soft brown velvet, tender and warm! They're like the earth after it rains, when the rays of sun finally set light-fire to the murky puddles and -"  
"Stop!" She screamed in an outburst.  
He blinked at her, suddenly embarrassed, but was reassured when she took his hands in hers.  
Her hands were shaking.  
"Just please, _please_ stop, Will."

For a couple of seconds they just froze in that position, both afraid to speak, until Will finally said in a hushed tone , "Why?"

Juliana didn't break eye contact; even if she was scared of her feelings, she sure as hell didn't let it show.  
"Because i wouldn't know what to say back. Because i'd want to say something just as good, to show just how important you are to me, but i never could. I'd never be able to make it up to you. And i'd need to." Her gaze faltered a little bit and she gulped.  
"Because you're my Will."

William slowly pulled her into his large, warm lap, and she obliged, clenching her eyelids shut and quaking in his arms.  
"And you're my July. My sunny July dawn." he sighed.  
Juliana wanted to kiss the dash of freckles that were sprinkled across the bridge of his nose, and ruffle his light caramel hair, that almost perfectly matched up with her dark caramel locks; but she was too afraid, too afraid to mess this all up like she did with Matt.

But Will was different from Matt. Will was kind, and shy and genuine and he saw her for what she was, well almost for what she was.  
Juliana accidentally flinched when he kissed her forehead, jerking back before releasing the sharp intake of breath and crashing back into him.  
Will was confused.

"Don't you want me to love you?" he whispered, both sweetly and bitterly.  
Juliana grabbed at the back of his orange shirt with her fists, fingernails softly digging into skin, to let him know she wasn't going anywhere.  
"Yes, i do want you to love me." she spoke low, pausing thoughtfully, thinking to the vibrating beat of his heart before speaking again.

"But you don't want to love me. You might think you do right now, but i'm telling you not to. Soon, you won't want to."  
She was crying now, the silent, hot-watered kind where it was barely crying at all, yet felt like a knife in the chest.

For if you got too close to this ray of sunshine you'd see that it wasn't a single beam of golden sun at all, it was a thousand shards of light, shattered like glass and placed to look like it was pieced together, when in reality it was falling apart with a hundred more thoughts reflecting and bouncing off the mirrors of the side of her mind.  
If Will Winters got too close to Juliana Williams, he could see just how dark it was inside.

That night Will let her stay in his tent, and he lifted the bottom of her shirt to kiss the scars on her hip bone and underneath her chest, pressing his lips onto every single one of them.

* * *

_**A/N: Hey! Sorry this chapter was so long, and to be honest, it did kind of feel a tad forced & i'm not so sure if it's all that good. Nonetheless, i hope you enjoyed it and make sure to review!  
Things really start to pick up in the next chapter, as the gang finally arrives at the Timekeeper's Palace, so be prepared for action and angst! **_

_**ALSO! Tell me if there are any character-pairings or "ships" you would like to see, and also tell me what you'd like to see less of or more of in the story! **_

_**I think i'm gonna write another OC fic after this one, and I'll choose 1 of my favorite OC's from this fic to use in the second one!**_

_**Hopefully the second fic will be better through experience, but i am really enjoying writing up this one.**_

_**I'm not sure, but for now, thanks for reading!**_

_**-timelordXatXhearts**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six:** Keys Are the Windows to the Soul _(Game of Mazes)_

* * *

"So this is it."

Chloe stammered out the four words, gazing out at the trees ahead with evergreen eyes swirling and distant, too soft to be brooding but too hollow to be gentle, not really addressing anyone in particular.  
They'd been hiking in comfortable silence for the last 30 minutes, so they all now looked taken aback at her sudden insightful comment.

"You're right. It's the third day, tonight will be the Winter Solstice. I hadn't thought of that." Will pondered aloud, staring at the ground, bed headed and looking confused.  
July smiled to herself while observing him. He always seemed to look lost or befuddled, only now he had a trail of purple bruises coloring his neck where her lips had been the previous night.  
July snickered at the thought, knowing he probably didn't even notice.

"Well none of us are dead or have betrayed anyone yet so i think this really, _really_ is **it**, guys." Ryan remarked, official as always.  
He folded out the map in his hands, straightening it with a crinkling noise and furrowing his brow, eyes focusing.  
Right now he would've even looked comparable to his father, Zeus himself, if he hadn't scrunched up his nose to the side and swatted at a butterfly.  
Chloe grinned. He was just a big teddy bear on the inside.

"Okay, so good news, we shouldn't be running into anymore towns, _Cade_, and we are 10 minutes away from the heart of the forest, where the Timekeeper's Palace lies."

Will sighed and slung a lanky arm around July's tiny shoulders. She closed her eyelids contently at his emanating warmth.  
"And that's a good thing because we look like murderous hobos!" Will grunted, as they hopped down a dip in the forestation, scaling back up the dirt-ridge in no time.

"I got an Iris message from my half-brother Nico last night." Chloe voiced, purposefully crunching a twig underneath her foot, and kicking it back towards Ryan with a little smile. He smiled back and kicked the splinted branch again, letting it tumble down the dirt ridge.  
"And?" Cade inquired when she didn't respond.  
"Aaand… his skeletal warriors are telling him that this _"Nameless One"_ is somehow controlling the Mist with the Timekeep. He's raising an army of magical fog, pretty much, like minions or something. Nico didn't say much more but apparently the Nameless One has created a new monster and is calling them 'Mist Walkers'. So cliche, right?"  
"Woah, woah, woah slow down there, death breath, you mean to say this Nameless One has created a whole entire army of Mist monsters that we don't know how to fight off?" Will chimed in, releasing July's hand and looking concerned.

"That's what i said." Chloe responded, and most people would've been offended at her mannerisms, but everyone in this group was used to it by now and knew that the shorter girl could lash out her whip faster than any complaint you could make.

"That's fan-hecking-tastic," Cade voiced, slapping her hands against her jean-covered thigh dramatically and ranting on, "So this faceless guy-"  
"Nameless one." Ryan corrected.  
"-Famous son, waltzes on in here like mother-trucking Hitler and decides to just go and, i don't know, CREATE AN ENTIRE NEW RACE OF FREAKING MONSTER as well as turn back time and mess up the Titan War that so many demigods have died for. I mean, wow. This guy is worse than Sharpay from High School Musical, and she was a bitch."  
Ryan rolled his eyes, but he had a little smile peeking out on the corner of his mouth.

Will started slowly nodding in agreement, ducking down to dodge a branch that the rest of the gang only had to crouch to get under (the perks of being 6 foot 2).  
"Yeah! You're right! I mean, 'The Nameless One'? How pretentious."  
July grinned upwards, doe-eyed at Will.

"Yeah! Why don't we call him like…Bobert or Carl or something…" Cade offered, strong brow furrowing while trying to come up with good names for an evil lord who was plotting to destroy the entire Godly and mortal population.

"Yeah, we'll call him Carl!" She concluded.  
"Carl?" Ryan questioned, now fully smiling at the girl he once despised.  
"Carl." Chloe agreed.  
"Carl." July nodded, fist-bumping Cade, all in mutual agreement.

So off the 5 demigods went to defeat the great and powerful Carl, oblivious to the fact that this was the last time they'd be walking together as a unified team. Unaware that the prophecy would eventually split them up, sending 4 of them their separate ways and 1 of them to their early grave.

Will silently pointed out a break in the tree line.  
Ryan halted them all, fearfully.

"Remember the prophecy guys:  
5 demigods  
one who is haunted  
one that is greater  
another unwanted  
but one is a traitor  
on cruel grounds they shall tread  
just 4 demigods  
for one of them's dead  
follow the mist to the Timekeeper's palace  
crack the code, save the realm  
be relieved of a-"

"We know, we know! A nameless malice! Now let's get this over with before I start thinking logically and I run the hellhound out of here." July breathed out quickly, suddenly taken by a shiver of cold, arms crossing her midsection and letting Will rub her shoulders to warm her up.  
Although they hadn't seen a monster since yesterday, her cinnamon brown hair was swooped up into a ponytail, like whenever she was getting ready for a big battle.

When they finally approached the Timekeeper's Palace, it was all very rapidly done so.  
The mist trail subtly thickening, a sudden break in the trees, the clearing hitting them like a bus, and a brief passing of a marble castle keep, protruding through the misty trees like a boat in the middle of an ocean of green.

More than anything, what they saw was Mist. Mist that hung low inches above the ground like fog, or a wounded animal, creeping from behind trees and heavily, slowly coursing towards the heart of the palace like a river into a whirlpool.

"Woah…" July breathed out at the intimidating sight of Apollo's old estate. But rather than instinctively tightening her grip on her sword like she usually would, her hand fell limply from the weapon in utter awe. The group joined her sides all looking up at the beastly elegant gate.

* * *

The Timekeeper's Palace was made purely of white marble, from what they could see, but the milky moonlight marble was etched with flakes and veins of gold, lining the white with a glint of grandeur. It was all breathtaking, but made the demigods very wary as well, considering they couldn't see the whole vastness of it, as a majority of the main castle (past the barbican and the bailey) was shrouded by a veil of engulfing mist. Behind the closed gate was a thicket of a maze, its dense green hedges transcending into a gray void.

Chloe began to tremble forward as usual, but did so with a lump in her throat as the uniform maze-hedges wasn't the kind of greenery she liked. This maze was behind a gate with spokes at the top for a reason.  
Ryan put a hand out on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring nod, smiling (which is something he rarely did).  
Chloe was grateful, stepping back and letting him take the lead. He had become something of an older brother to her, he didn't treat her like the rest. She was his little forest fawn.  
Chloe was like little red riding hood to him, except he knew that instead of cookies in the basket she would have had two semi-automatic rifles inside instead.

Ryan squinted through the midday mist to read a stone plaque mounted on top of one of the marble pillars that held the gate together.

"It says…. _'Keys are the windows to the soul…. step forward and check your pockets for your fate'_."

Cade pushed through, war hammer slung at her hip, and peered through the stone-cold gate bars.  
This place was starting to look less and less like the palace of a sun god and more and more like a glorified torture maze.

Ryan stepped forward next to her and placed a hand cautiously on her shoulder.  
The last time he'd placed a hand on her shoulder it was with a fist and they were trying to pummel each other off of Half-Blood Hill.  
"Check your pocket." He murmured gently, almost fondly.

Cade felt her way to her pocket and frowned when her fingertips hit something cold.  
She reached further down and pulled the entire unfamiliar object out for the group to see.  
It was a single, black skeletal key, lonely and, as weird as it sounds, hers.

It felt like hers.

Cade twirled the key in the hazy sunlight for everyone to see.  
"Wow, of course my key is black! Like my soul. How fitting…" Cade took one final gaze at it, before shoving it back into her pocket.

She had a knack for making corny jokes at horrible times, but Will was grateful this time because it took the tension off of the situation, easing the endeavor a little bit.

Simultaneously, the entire group took one step forward, all nervously reaching into their pockets with tremouring fingers and sweaty hands.

Ryan Blaze's key, or his _'fate'_ as the plaque had put it, was quite the contrary from Cade's pitch-black matte one. His was a shimmering, solid gold, like the handle of a European door knob or the gleam of a coin flipped in sunlight. Of course the golden boy would have a golden key; the key of a true hero.

Juliana only merely glimpsed at hers, unsure what the bone-white one meant, the skeletal design of the key only making it look more and more like it was forged out of finger bones. She shoved it into her pocket, afraid of what it might've meant, but pretty sure she had a vague idea of what it foreshadowed.

Will didn't know what to expect from his metal key, but he didn't expect this. It was a sad navy blue, and you could make out remnants of ghostly white wisps if you looked closely enough.

Chloe blinked at her's, part of her wanting to shield it from the others, but still receiving some unfavorable looks of disappointment from Ryan. It was a red one, bright red like the blood beating directly from a hog's heart, like it'd been dipped in a stream of berry-paints.  
Ryan was obviously "the greater one", and Cade was "unwanted" by her mom, perhaps July was the haunted one in the prophecy, with her scars and all, but what did that make Chloe? Chloe shuddered at the thoughts in her twisted, forest of a mind, and linked arms with Cade instinctively. They hesitantly stepped forward to the gates, all with a key clutched in hand. They'd probably be having to face challenges, but at least they had each other.

July nearly jumped at the loud groaning creak of the hefty stone gates swinging backwards, rusty joints caving into the looming mazes and granting the group of teenagers permission to enter willingly into their dooms. Now that they'd gotten their keys, it was all up to them to face the full wrath of the beautifully deadly Timekeeper's Palace (and there was also the almighty "Carl" and his Mist Walkers, but that would be later).

They stepped forward past the line of the gate, with a silence like death among them, hanging around their shoulders and weighing them down. One second they were holding hands, the next a rustle of green hedge had surged in between them, growing rapidly and lunging forward like the Erymanthian Boar had, separating them in the matter of seconds.

"WILL!" The word had not yet left Juliana's lips as his panicked face and outstretched arm was replaced by a wall of green. The game of mazes would be played fair and square, the challenge was a fight with your deepest secrets and flaws and would be faced alone.

"RYAN?! CADE!?" Chloe choked out, for once not wanting to be away from them, not wanting to be all in her lonesome.  
But her voice echoed in emptiness and her friends were long gone, and when they'd come out of their challenge, they might even not be friends.

Chloe squeezed her red key, no longer shaken, but more aggravated with the situation. She shook away a lock of sleek charcoal, over-grown sidebangs that got in her eyes, and began to study her surroundings, woodland eyes darting across the walkway. The hedges had magically cornered her off from the rest of the group and to her appeared to be a long hallway of green, cell-like and shadowed.

The mist could make anything here and she knew that, arms raised and finger on the trigger that turned her forearm-brace into a whip. Her heartbeat was pounding in her brain for some reason, and she had to remind herself to breathe. Chloe Ann Denning was smart, but that was just her problem in this case. No amount of wits could help her now.

Chloe peered down the dark stretch of dirt and saw only a blackened-blade knife, jagged like the morals of a God, sitting alone at the end of a poorly lit hall on top of a lonely pedestal and only then did she truly understand who she was and what she had to do. The blood red key burned in her fingers, its dark magic relishing at the thought of her realization.  
She knew what she had to do.  
She just knew.

* * *

_**(A/N: Wow! Woah! Okay! It seems like i just started this yesterday and now we're getting to the final 5-6 chapters! Not much happened in this chapter, but this was just a preparation for the next one: the revelation! **_

_**Sorry contest winners, i will be killing off 1 OC and making another a traitor :( **_

_**BUT the traitor performed all of his/her actions with good reason and i can assure you left the story as a hero/heroine...(please don't hate me)**_

_**Aaand in good news, Natsuki Morgans, child of Hades, will be joining us **__finally__** in the chapter after the next and help the remaining OCs fight off the wretched Mist Walkers along with the corrupt and malicious Nameless One (nicknamed by Cade "Carl" but Nameless One sounds cooler).**_

_**So i guess I'll see you then? P.S. The next chapter packs some serious intensity, and things only go up from there ;)**_

_**-timelordXatXhearts**_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Revelation (Down the Key Hole)**

* * *

Ryan Blaze never ran, but even now as he mentally screamed at himself to stand his ground, his feet were rhythmically hitting the dirt hard and carrying him further and further away from his finished challenge.

Further away from his nightmare.

He broke through the hedge and into the stone-floored square, chest heaving and with unfallen, silent tears.

He fell to his knees before even turning to his 4 companions who were waiting for him.

The square was quite literally a large slab of stone, large and raised up from the Earth, surrounded by hedges and inescapable, excepting the 35 foot deep ditch surrounding the plateau like a gutter to Tartarus.

At the center of the stone platform was a giant, gaping keyhole, like a never-ending well that even a 300 pound man could fall through. Ryan assumed they were all expected to throw their keys in there, considering they'd all just finished their challenges.

But there was still some unfinished business; no one was dead and no one had betrayed anyone. The traitor was still among them.

Ryan wanted to reach out to Chloe or Will, or even Cade for some comfort but as he took a wary step forward, he realized that they were all on opposite ends of the stone. They were staring at each other like the enemies, fingering their weapons and all traumatized. They were in no shape to fight together.

Chloe was the first who spoke. She looked mostly unharmed to Ryan's relief, but it was her eyes that looked truly scarred, wide and alert, not like a deer being hunted, but like a deer in the headlights, staring into the face of inevitable doom.  
"What did you have to do?"

They all whirled to face their once leader, weapons not drawn, but their hands poised in defense mode.

Ryan couldn't help but let his gaze drop as he replayed his challenge in his head.  
"I had to…. I-, they made me… watch a group of kids being skinned by minotaurs. I just stood there. I couldn't be the hero…" He had to force every word out of his tightened throat now, a grimace contorting his sorrowful expression.

"I couldn't scream or move or i knew the challenge would be all over and we wouldn't have all the keys to open the palace. I knew it was just the maze and the mist messing with my head but…"  
Ryan's head was reeling as he pushed himself up, standing and trying to wash the waves of trauma over with a mask of leadership.  
"They told me i was the greater one, let me pass, and i sprinted like hell."

No one spoke, and just like him being chosen for the quest, no one looked shocked.

"How about you guys?"  
His tears had dried and now he was beginning to question some things too.

Cade was clutching herself, the furthest away from the group, and hugging her body.  
Will was just looking lost and mournful at the ground, eyes burning straight through Ryan and straight through the core of the earth.  
Chloe was shaking with a manic laugh, something dark was clutched in her pale, dainty hands, and Juliana was emotionless, staring into empty.

Cade winced at nothing and then hugged her key, burnt black with her secrets, before speaking up.

"I-I don't want to say. They didn't tell me I was the unwanted one, i just knew…. I just goddamn knew…"  
She trailed off not making eye contact.  
So that was 2 prophecies down, his and Cade's, 3 to go.

Ryan wasn't sure what he was scared of most, finding out who was the traitor, or who was dead.

Next Ryan turned to William, who only shook his light brown hair, once shining, now only a dull sand, and threw his in without saying anything but the vague,  
"I stood on a grave, a nameless grave. I pray to god it wasn't my twin sister's or maybe mine or i…"  
He sucked in his bottom lip, turning it white.  
"I just don't know."

Ryan didn't push him any further, afraid what he might say next just might claim him dead.

Ryan didn't even have to face Juliana for her to start explaining herself.  
Juliana spoke simply and concisely.  
"The maze cornered me with cyclops and they tore me up like when they did when i was 11…. And I let them. I guess it wasn't really real, because I'm still here, …. but I could've sworn I felt it when they hit the bone with the carving knife and I told them to just kill me already."

William looked furious as he stormed over to Juliana's side of the stone, but he only greeted her with a firm hug, kissing her neck and murmuring, "It'll be okay, we're all here… we're all here…"

Ryan frowned and repeated Will's words to himself.  
"We're all here… We're all still here…"  
Ryan whirled around with a sudden realization to the last person standing unquestioned: Chloe.

The other 3 demigods' eyes followed Ryan's, all looking coldly except Cade who had pleading eyes, pleading for it not to be true.

Ryan tried to appear ruthless and merciless, but his constant, flickering faltering gaze gave it away.

"Well you're not dead so…" Ryan couldn't even bring himself to face his own accusation.

Chloe's face was shaking violently in her hands now.

They were all she'd ever known.

When Chloe looked up from her hands, she spoke between sobs.  
"Don't you dare. Don't you dare say that to me… please…"  
She looked desperately between the 4, but none of them except Ryan would meet her eyes.

Will threw his sword to the ground, bringing the attention to him with a clatter.  
"We loved you Clo! But then why do you have a black dagger in your hand if you're not the traitor?"

Chloe threw the black dagger down to the floor in an attempt to convince them otherwise, but Ryan still thought the dark glint mirrored that of her hair.

"It's not what it looks like! My challenge was to kill a monster with a weapon, in cold blood, myself. You see, i've never actually physically killed one, i've always just used my wit instead-"

Ryan snapped.  
"Oh cut the bullcrap, WE TRUSTED YOU."

Chloe: quiet, clever, and night blooming, had never looked so scared to lose something in her life. She couldn't go back into that forest of her mind alone.

"No, no no i'm not the traitor! I swear, look i'll even throw in my key-"  
Chloe began to raise her arm to toss her key in the massive key well in an act of loyalty when all truth was revealed in the matter of a second.

July suddenly was no longer looking down in pain.  
The entire group could see, even with their distance from each other, Juliana William's eyes shoot wide open, bulging like that of a corpse and quick like a white bullet.  
"NO YOU DON'T."

Will didn't even feel her warmth leave, but with a blink she was across the platform and struggling with Chloe to make sure she didn't get her key in the hole, to make sure the prophecy would remain uncompleted.

Chloe was thrown across the slab with a grunt of surprise at Juliana's lunge, and her heart didn't even have the chance to skip a beat as her back foot missed the edge of the stone, falling into nothing.

Juliana's crazed eyes flashed back into shock, grasping for Chloe's hand as she realized the girl had fallen over the edge in the struggle for the key, but Juliana's hands only grasped empty air.

The crackle of a body crushing itself 35 feet below in a ditch sounded only like the soft thump of a distant fallen tree from way up here.

"WHAT THE HELL HOUND, JULIANA!" Ryan raged.

Juliana still had her arms outstretched for a Chloe who was no longer there, and Cade might've even felt sorry for her if she hadn't still had both keys clutched inbetween her twitching fingers.

Juliana finally turned to the group, but she did not have the face of a traitor. She had the face of a sorry, scared little girl.

But that was the difference between traitors and enemies, traitors always were regretful and they always were close to you.  
Enemies would stab you in the face, but traitors would stab you in the back, with tear-filled eye lids and the word "sorry" on the tip of their tongues.

Juliana spoke with her hands out in defense.  
"I never meant to hurt Chloe! I do what i do for my family! Those cyclops who scarred me up, murdered my mom in her sleep! The Nameless One promised to send me back in time to save her tonight! To save my 3 year old sister Tara and my mom. My mom! I'm sorry guys, I'm so sorry…"  
Juliana was sobbing hysterically now, blubbering on and on about her mom and how she didn't deserve to die, and all of her friends looked horrified, not sure what to make of her.

Will was the only one crying for her, he was the only one in denial.

Will covered his hand over his mouth and shook his head at her.  
"No, no no! July, July you stop this right now, i know you're lying!"  
Spit dribbled down his chin as he sputtered out his words in screams.

Juliana looked at him like one would towards a dead lover.

"I'm so so sorry! Please, just understand. I'm sorry to you, _Will_, the most. But i don't think i can do this anymore. The nameless one will save me!"

Ryan never had the time to cry.  
None for his family and none for Juliana.  
He pounced towards her, aiming for the keys but this daughter of Apollo was fast as light.

She flashed one more look towards Will before poising herself on the edge of the slab, and diving into the ditch with 2 keys in hand.  
"Goodbye."

* * *

All 3 demigods flinched and turned their backs, finally allowing themselves to break down and shatter into a million pieces.

Cade was panting the most, managing only a panicked,  
"Ryan, Ryan! Look over the edge and tell me if either of them are still alive! Did Chloe make the fall?"

She didn't look at him, afraid to even turn in the direction of death.

Ryan took in his sharp breaths faster now, knowing he'd need them, and dared to peer over the edge of the stone plateau.

The thing at caught Ryan's eye was at first glance just a slimy, bloody slug with two, now painted red, keys clutched in hand. That must be the beautiful July Williams.

Ryan held back a gag and swallowed his breath instead, forcing himself to tear his eyes away from the sight and look to the left.

On the other side he saw Chloe, eyes bulging out and mangled, twisted limbs. Her blood was mixed with July's, only hers was a darker shade of crimson, like red tinted ink. The skin by her mouth was pulled taut towards the ground, making the illusion of a crazed, bloody, skeleton smile. He remembered Chloe had once called dying beautiful.

But Chloe was a walking, talking, beautiful dying girl ever since Mr.D damned her to this quest.

Ryan lurched away, stumbling back onto the slab and suddenly he had the urge to vomit.

Cade knew from his reaction that they were both gone.

"Oh my gods…" Cade breathed out with a cry-riddled laugh.

"The last words we said to Chloe… the last time we saw her…" She turned to Ryan, for Will was mute and nonrespondant.

"We thought Chloe was the traitor!" She laughed again, incredulous and with tears cutting through her cheeks with a stream of silver.  
"And she was our savior! With every single battle she saved us and we thought-" Cade fell to the ground again, catching herself with her hands and not getting up again until she felt two cold, rough hands guiding her upwards.  
They belonged to Ryan.

Ryan pulled Cade up to meet his face, both were dirty and tired, and longed for a rest, but he just smiled.

Cade's smile in return was cut short by a blood curdling scream that knotted her guts into balloon animals.

"JULIANA!" Will screamed her name so loudly his voice vibrated, and the ground seemed to too.

Ryan protectively shielded Cade away from the grieving boy and stumbled with her away from the edge of the stone table and closer to the middle by the Key Well.

The soft vibrating of the earth now ascended to a deep rumbling and a rigid dirt road began to lift from where Juliana's dead body lay, barely recognizable, to the stone platform.

Ryan stared, dumbstruck at the growing dirt road, and tried to scan over everything Chloe had taught him when something in his brain clicked.  
_'Hermes, the god of roads.'_

But it was not Hermes who rose the road leading them down to the keys, it was his son.  
Will.  
When Will's screams died down, so did he, falling to his knees once again with chin raised to the sky in defeat.

Cade cautiously stepped out of Ryan's arms, with a hand out towards Will, but Will paid no attention to them.

Will charged right past them, standing, then walking calmly down his newly raised road, and returning from the depths of the ditch with the two remaining keys laid carefully in his palm. They were both now that sickly blood red, painted wet.

Will threw the keys into the gaping hole soundlessly and began to walk back through the hedges from which he came.

The key well sparked with an erupting mist, opening up and revealing a spiral of limestone stairs down into the ground, but no one turned, they all had their eyes stuck on their friend.

"Where are you going?!" Cade shouted after him.  
Will turned, expressionless just as July had been. But he was not expressionless in that he was hiding something. All emotion had been sucked out of him and had died with his love.  
William Winters would forever be the haunted one.

"I'm going home. To Hannah. To Camp."  
He still had the bruises from July's lips etched onto his neck, shadowy and faint, but they were there.

With that he disappeared, and for a second Ryan and Cade couldn't even remember any of the events truly happening, it was all so surreal. It was like looking back on a memory, when in reality, everyone had disappeared in the matter of minutes.

One second they were holding hands, walking through a gate, the next Cade and Ryan were all alone.

So, Cade was unwanted, Chloe was dead, July was a traitor, and Will was haunted, but Ryan sure as hell didn't feel greater. Ryan didn't feel anything at all anymore.

Ryan snatched up Cade's hand and she didn't flinch at the contact this time.  
Cade acted brave, learning from him to keep a face like steel and convince herself she was courageous, and he had learned to love her like a friend.

Once enemies, now hand in hand, Ryan and Cade jumped into the descending well of fog, just hoping to hit solid ground.  
They were the only ones left, and The Nameless One was still waiting for a hero to kill.

* * *

_**(A/N):**__** Wow, i am a horrible person. **_  
_**Sorry for… well, pretty much this whole chapter. **_  
_**BUT! I swear on my life that it will definitely get better and the next 6 chapters are epic as ever, introducing Nat to the playing board, introducing the Nameless One (who will soon be revealed), and introducing a surprise character! I have some tricks up my sleeve to turn this fic back around, kick it to the ground again, and then whip it back up for another round.**_  
_**Stick with me please! I have a little surprise ending for you… (heheh)**_

_**-timelordXatXhearts**_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: Night-Horror (Army of Fog)**

* * *

Ryan and Cade had been sprinting, stumbling, and fumbling down the endless spiral of stairs for what seemed like hours, doing it all blindly through thick, shrouding mist.

They'd been running further and further from the light of day and closer and closer into the clutches of the Nameless One, and soon they couldn't even see their feet, or the countless stairs they were missing. Even sooner, the fuzzy image of a light filled spot in the shape of a keyhole far above their heads faded to gray and black wisps of dark-mist as well.

_'We've had to just scaled down about a hundred stairs.'_ Ryan thought, almost falling asleep in his running daze, with only Cade's small, slick with sweat hand in his to remind him of reality.  
Cade thought similarly.  
_'If i have to walk down one more step after just sprinting down 100 billion, i will shit a brick.'_

Cade gagged as her foot hit solid ground where she was expecting another stair.  
"OOF!"  
She accidentally bit down hard on her tongue, tasting pennies and metal, and stopping her face from kissing the ground hard by catching herself with her scrawny wrists.

The ground was a cold and seemed to be beating-_no_, ticking with the soft vibration of a clock's heartbeat.  
They were in the heart of the Timekeeper's Palace: its dungeon.

The walls were a blueish stone and at first glance it looked like a giant tomb.

Ryan grunted, and lifted the small girl up easily with one arm.  
He nodded his head towards a massive limestone double-door, from which a churning mist was creeping out underneath.  
"The map said the secret door into the throne room where the Timekeep is should be 3 doors that way. Those 3 doors could hold anything."

Cade nodded understandingly and began to walk forward, wearing Ryan's battle expression, before she felt a firm hand grasp her arm.  
She was about to make another ill-timed joke about his ginormous hands when she was interrupted by those hands clasping either side of her face instead.

He spoke quickly and truly.  
"You are not alone, and you are not unwanted. Now whatever is on the other side of that door, i just wanted you to know that you're not unwanted, fire-girl."  
Before Cade could even respond, Ryan pressed his lips against hers hard, before pulling away quickly.  
It was like fire and ice, and it left Cade's lips tingling.

Cade smiled, and couldn't help the rosy flush that glowed on her face.  
The kiss was more reassuring than romantic, and Cade was thankful for that, but nonetheless she couldn't help but be saddened at the thought.  
He'd kissed her because he knew that this could be the end. Just like Chloe had said, this was it. They had exactly 15 minutes before the moon rose and the prophecy, that was a damnation for some and a savior for the rest, expired.

Cade hadn't even begun to think of who or what this Nameless person was, and what else would they be facing, right now they were just sprinting away from time itself.

Together, Ryan and Cade pryed open the limestone doors, and it didn't take much looking to figure out why the dungeon was closed in the first place.

* * *

"GET BACK!" Cade screamed, pulling the unknowing Ryan back into the first room by the collar.

Hundreds and hundreds of minions made of pure Mist stood before them, like clay soldiers all in legion formation. The only door was on the other side of the army, and the army didn't seem to notice Cade and Ryan unless they were in the room.

Cade spoke quickly, almost incomprehensively.  
"Chloe told me about these guys a couple nights ago in the forest grove. They're mist walkers. Only a powerful God could've created these absolute beasts. They can't see, they haven't got eyes, and their other senses are clouded by their own inner-mist."  
The fire in Cade's eyes was flickering again and she just hoped it wouldn't go out, because there were way too many in there for them two to face alone.

Ryan squinted at her, confused.  
"So they're blind and deaf and made of magic cloud fluff. How are they dangerous again?!"  
Cade slapped him softly on the back of the head for asking stupid questions, and for a second it was like how it was back in the forest camp grounds. Ryan smiled at her, but kept an open mind and open ears.

Cade glanced nervously back at the now-stirring mist walkers and turned back to Ryan even more so hurried.  
"They travel and hunt by thoughts. They can sense your thoughts. The more you think of them, the more they sense where you are, and the more likely they'll gut you with their wicked Night-Spears. The more you feel fear, the more of them grow. The more you think of what scares you, that's when they get real scary, and turn into what you fear the most. They're made of mist, right? Remember that Blaze, don't think Mist Walkers, don't think Fear, and don't think Nightmares."

_'No mist walkers, no fear, no nightmares. Mist walkers, fear, nightmares, mist walkers, fear, nightmares….'_ Ryan memorized for a final time before swallowing hard and banishing those 3 thoughts from his mind completely. He was empty.

Cade gripped Ryan's hand first this time, and they surged forward, not thinking anything at all.  
The two demigods jogged, quite literally **_through_** the cold, cloudy, ghost-like beings of the mist walkers.

After passing through just the first legion, Cade already has goosebumps everywhere except her forehead, and they weren't from the cold.

Cade finally allowed herself to detach her nails from Ryan's knuckles, let out a breath of air, and finally think again when they hit the halfway mark; they were almost to the 2nd door.  
_'Halfway there, c'mon Cade.'_ She pushed herself.

_CRASH!_  
Just like that a little bit of hell broke loose.  
That was Cade's mistake, letting herself think.  
One of her nightmares had come to life.  
Ryan whipped his neck towards her with alarm written all over him.  
They sprinted without turning back, blood running cold, but could still see the screech of a newly-appeared Fury dipping in and out of the sea of dense Mist.  
_BOOM!_  
Another nightmare appeared, thundering through the invisible army and just on their heels, it sounded like a flesh-eating horse, but they didn't dare turn back.

"Don't turn around, Ryan! Your thoughts will get jumbled in the commotion!" Cade shouted, gritting her teeth to stop herself from thinking anything else.  
But Ryan had his own priorities.  
He was already lashing around to face the Fury, who's breath was broiling on the back of Cade's neck, with two swords in hand as he answered her.  
"It's we fight them, or they kill us!"

Cade only stopped running and slid to a halt in time to turn around and see the deteriorating monster ash falling down like black snowflakes on the imperial gold of his blade.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Cade clutched her head, heart dropping deeper and deeper into her stomach.  
As Ryan had been forced to fight the monster, the entire army had woken up.  
Cade lifted her hammer and pressed a trigger, shooting a small hunting knife from the butt of her hammer at a lightning speed, and it was just enough to make the night-spear ricochet to the side of Ryan's shoulder, rather than having the mist walker who was wielding it kill Ryan from behind.

All of the eyeless faces were staring straight at the two now, night-spears in hand.

"RUN, YOU IDIOT!"

Ryan sprinted up to Cade's side, and once again he was running, only this time with a daughter of Hephaestus fighting beside him, and he was swinging two swords because his life depended on it.  
They were only a few paces away from the exit. Cade was almost crying with joy as they approached their escape rapidly, not even caring what may lay on the other side of this door. That's when Ryan stopped running, letting Cade stumble ahead, hands on the doors, before she jolted to a stop, turning to him.  
His face was as white as Chloe's as she lie in that ditch.  
The mist walkers halted all at once, bringing the entire room to an echoey halt.  
They'd found a new nightmarish thought to feast on, one big enough for the entire army.

"What have i done…" Ryan breathed out, staring blankly, just beyond Cade.

The rumbling approach of the sea of mist walkers was still dying down, just white noise now, but the entire army of hundreds had sickly, loathsome, knowing smiles etched upon their stone-like faces, and if they had eyes those would be grinning just as madly.

"I just thought of my worst nightmare on accident." Ryan said low, in a hushed tone.

Those mist walkers would make sure that nightmare would come to life.

Cade twirled in a circle, checking the perimeter and finding nothing but eerie mist-smiles, which only made her more panicked.  
"What!? What is it?!" She shook his shoulders and he finally met her eyes.

"It's losing you."

* * *

_**(A/N: Woah, weird. This has been one of my shorter chapters, which doesn't feel right because lately my chapters have been long as heck. **_

_**Anyways this was just a filler chapter, hope you guys didn't mind. I'm also very excited for Natsuki in the next chapter, i think you'll all really like her because she's a badass and the Nameless One will be revealed and omg i'm just so excited for everything, but sadly have little time for anything due to homework and such... :( **_

_**I think those of you who have been reading this from the beginning will be very happy for the surprise i have in a couple of chapters (3-5 chapters away i wanna say). I don't wanna spoil anything else, just make sure to review and tell me what to do better!**_

_**Thanks,**_

_**- timelordXatXhearts )**_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: The Nameless One, Natsuki Morgans, and Apollo's Timekeep**

* * *

Cade was silenced by utter disbelief, not daring to move, but too scared to do nothing.

She could feel the mist walkers' smiles engulfing her, like the cold shock of a blade on your back, sending a shudder through your entire body.  
"Ryan… Ryan, help me." Cade pleaded.  
She jutted out her bottom jaw and bit down hard on her upper lip to keep from crying, but her eyes still glinted with tear-shine.  
Ryan reached down to try and grab her hand and pull her through the throne room doors, but when he reached down there was nothing there, just an ever-fading mist where her hand used to be, swirling out into nothing.  
She was disappearing, and disappearing fast.

He looked back up at her sorrowfully, and she let out a choked laugh.

That's when Ryan was knocked off his feet by something, or someone, landing on him. He was blinded by a swish of black hair and pinned down by pale, dainty hands.  
It was a girl, a girl who apparently just fell out of nowhere and on top of him.  
But as Ryan struggled to look at her from his compromising position, he thought,

_'No she didn't fall from nowhere, she fell from the night, she fell from outer space.' _ Her hair was as black as oblivion, long enough to rest on the chain by the waist of her black skinny jeans and long enough to cover only one of her eyes.

The girl grunted and pushed herself off of his chest, and then hauled him up by the shirt. She was only a little taller than Cade, and had a figure like an hourglass, but apparently was strong enough to lift the hefty boy on his feet with one slender hand.

This girl wasted no time with casualties, and Ryan was glad for this as Cade was now only existent from waist up, the rest of her becoming his nightmare of nothing.  
The girl pulled his face up to hers, breath steamy and sickly sweet on his face, like graveyard flowers.

"We're going." She snatched up Ryan's hand and held onto Cade's disappearing vest-collar.  
"NOW." She shouted.  
The girl clenched her eyelids shut and next thing Ryan knew, he was one with the shadows.  
The girl was a shadow traveler, a daughter of Hades, like Chloe.

This mysterious demigod had swooped in, in the nick of time, and whisked them away from the Mist Walkers and into safety and Ryan didn't even know her name.

* * *

When the spinning stopped, Ryan was hit with the hard stony ground, like a rough kiss on his cheek.  
Cade and Ryan fell to the floor with such a force that they literally bounced up on their backs upon impact, thudding upwards before crashing back down again.  
As for the shadow traveler, she had just apparated peacefully and soundly in the corner, and was now twirling her skull and ruby necklace between two fingers.

Ryan attempted to get up quickly, in battle stance, but groaned with pain and lifted himself more slowly instead.  
He rubbed his head, electric eyes scanning his surroundings for dangers, but the only one he saw was the pale girl who'd just saved them, lounging in the corner like it wasn't the end of the world.

They were in what appeared to be the main square of the palace garden. It looked like the key-hole square from before, except this one was only surrounded by hedges on three sides, on one side there was a wall of the palace, and only now it was nightfall.

Ryan rushed to Cade's side. She was still on the ground, now in one piece, thanks to the quiet threat in the corner.  
Cade stirred, and barely opened her eyes into slits, turning to the girl and mumbling,  
"You just hit Ryan…. with a person…" before passing out again, hammer still loosely resting in limp fingers.

Ryan whipped his head around, looking for a way into the throne room, but they were surrounded by walls of hedges and a wall of white marble.

Ryan stepped towards the girl, warily.  
"Why the Hades would you take us here?! We were 2 feet away from the throne room where the Timekeep is, and we're kinda on a shortage of time!"

The girl spoke with a her true emotions in every single word, unlike her half-sister Chloe who was a closed book, but her words were just as blunt.  
"No, you were 2 feet away from the Mist Walkers, which is why your girlfriend over here was ceasing to exist! And you're welcome, assho-"

"Okay! I get it! But how are we going to get in the throne room! Now we're past the mazes, past the key well, and far past the dungeon of mist walkers."  
The girl let the necklace drop from her two fingers, and stood, swinging her long straight hair over her shoulder and almost brushing back her bangs before remembering the scarlet-red secret that lie beneath.  
The girl looked half-japanese and half-white, like Ryan's old best friend from high school.  
As she stood before Ryan, he realized that she was taller than him too, and she had the same pouty lips and defined jawline of Chloe.  
His heart clenched. But this girl was uncompromising, stubborn and wasn't looking to make friends.  
"There's this thing called a front entrance. Just through those doors, plus the Nameless One won't be expecting it. He expected your journey through the mazes, hence the giant freaking army waiting for you in the Key Well Dungeon."

Ryan sheathed his two swords and weakly motioned to the blank wall she was referring to.  
"Yeah, um, great plan shadow-girl, but there are no doors where you are pointing! That's just a wall."

The girl clicked the ruby at the top of her necklace and the necklace transformed into a Stygian Ice Scythe, falling away from her neck and into her hands, making Ryan step back.  
"The mist is hiding it, trust me."

Ryan laughed at this.  
"Oh! Trust you? Sorry, but my friend is dying on the floor, i'm freaking out, i'm supposed to have this all under control, and that. Is just. A WALL."

The girl was losing her patience.  
"Oh yeah, if that's just a wall then you're a charming guy and i'm a ray of sunshine. IT'S A DOOR. I've been scouting these grounds for long enough to know."  
Even for the slender girl she was, she managed to heave up the blubbering Cade and sling her over her shoulder with a grunt.  
"Let's go."

Skeptically, Ryan followed the girl across the square.  
Sure enough, when they got close enough, a faint blue scratch of light began to flicker upon the marble and next thing Ryan knew, an enormous set of grand double doors that came to an elegant point at the top were gleaming before them, with a godly luminosity. But the white marble now reflected a spectral blue from the moonlight.

It was almost midnight. The Winter Solstice was near.

The girl turned to Ryan before entering the palace doors.  
"Once we get in-"  
"WHAT THE-!" Cade shouted, making the girl jump in her skin, suddenly waking up and squirming so violently in the girl's arms that she dropped her in shock.  
Cade exclaimed a curse word and bounced back up like a curious puppy. Arabella McCade wasn't too easily disheartened.

Most people would be afraid or at least conscientious of a stranger with shocking features, but Cade just rubbed her back and looked the girl up and down, asking,  
"So who are you supposed to be, Jackie Chan? Sweet shadow traveling, though…"  
The girl looked into her eyes and spoke even firmer than she did with Ryan.  
"My name is Natsuki Morgans, you can call me Nat, and you can thank me when we get out of here alive and with the Timekeep."  
Cade only smiled devishly at Nat's seriousness, still managing to look like a smart-ass this early into consciousness.  
"My name's Cade. Just Cade."

Nat backed away politely, and was able to produce a shy little half-smile. She liked this girl, with her ember-wood eyes and vampire smiles.  
Nat noted that near Cade's pupils the iris's color spiked into an almost crimson reddish-brown that was not nearly as vivid as Nat's scarlet eye that lie beneath her bangs, but it still made her smile.

Ryan broke up their interaction by tugging Chloe by the arm away from Nat, who he still seemed to not trust, pulling her back into his chest.  
"And my name's Ryan. But right now we have bigger problems, like successfully sending this Nameless One to Tartarus."

Nat ignored Ryan and placed a hand on Cade's arm, speaking carefully to her, like an older sister would.  
"You're too weak from the mist walkers and we can't afford you swinging around a war hammer."  
Cade nodded in agreement, for her head felt light and hollow.

Nat turned to Ryan.  
"The palace has been completely taken over and we have no idea what we might find in it's halls on the way to the throne room."

Ryan nodded too, and faced to door, letting out a big breath of air, and into the Timekeeper's Palace they went.

Ryan had been so accustomed to fighting with Cade, Chloe, July, and Will covering him, that now his back felt naked with only Nat and a foggy-minded Cade following.

The foyer of the palace would've been a regal white marble (from the staircases, to the side-tables, to even the gold embellished halls), but due to the fact that the ceilings were made of glass, the foyer was now drenched in a thin drapery of opaque blue silk, making everything glow in navy shadows from the moonlight.

All three demigods in the party crouched down low as they made their way underneath the dazzling chandelier and past the grand staircases on either side, their footsteps echoing.  
Ryan and Nat led together, Nat with the directions and a watch counting down to the solstice, and Ryan with the instincts.

Nat motioned her head to the left, and Ryan made a sharp left turn, being met with a monster in his face.  
"GAHH!" Ryan swung at the creature that was only inches from him, letting it crumble to the ground.  
Ryan Blaze didn't take any chances though, so he made sure to give it two extra smashes with crushing blows to the skull from the hilts of his swords.

Nat pushed him against the marble wall.  
"WHAT THE HADES MAN!" Her voice bounced off the echoey halls.  
Ryan was confused, lifting up his two swords in submission.  
"WHAT?! What the hellhound is that thing!"  
Nat groaned and rolled her eyes, turning away from him and gesturing to the skeleton on the ground.

"I think you just killed one of my skeletal warriors." She bent down, hands on knees and looked closer.  
"Yep, you did. Nice going man, lets just move forward."

Cade was stifling a laugh behind them, head still swimming with amnesia and dizziness.

Ryan followed the angry Natsuki, making sure Cade was close behind him.  
"Sorry! But really?! Of course i'm going to kill the creepy dead thing that's blundering towards me! Why would anyone want company with the dead anyways, i mean i guess they're peaceful or something but-"  
"If you think the dead are peaceful, you've never seen a dead person." Nat interrupted, not turning to face him.

The trio jogged cautiously down the empty, moonlit halls, taking the turns quickly and not stopping to gawk at Apollo's manor.  
Ryan assumed the ceiling was made of glass because Apollo liked to have the sunlight fill up the rooms in the daytime, but at night it was practically like being outside. Cade just thought Apollo did it because he was one creepy dude.

Cade soon gained back her strength and by the time they slid to a halt affront the intimidating doors of the throne room she was swinging her flaming war hammer enthusiastically.

At even just the door to the Timekeep, the three looked up at it like one would an angry Titan. The door was an ink black, and stood out like a hole in reality against the white marble surrounding it. It seemed to look down the demigods, and smile as wickedly as the mist walkers.

The doors swung inwards with three muffled booms, and there sitting before them was the legendary Timekeep, directly centered at the back of the throne room, steaming with mist, and with the golden halo encircling the clock-orb swirling faster and faster.  
It was almost fully charged.

Nat turned to Ryan and nodded, Ryan glanced down at Nat's watch that was ticking down to the final 2 minutes, and Cade just cracked her neck, staring ahead and swinging her war-hammer.

With that, they all sprinted down the length of the throne room, the sound of their footsteps echoing on the floor pounding in their heads.  
As they raced across the room, the space between them and the Timekeep only seemed to grow further and further, even them at full speed not seeming fast enough to beat time itself.

Ryan almost cried out with joy as the Timekeep was close enough for his fingers to brush with just one more footstep, but then his heart dropped deep into his stomach, like a stone into black waters.

The Timekeep was just waiting for them, laid out too perfectly. They should've known there was a catch.  
This catch was the sound of a silky, luring voice, that snaked from Ryan's ears down onto his back, making it lined with goosebumps.  
With just two words, the man made all three demigods stop all movement, mid-breath.

"Ryan Blaze."

* * *

_**(A/N: Again, can i just say "filler-chapter!"**_

_**Well not much went down in Ch.9, but you guys did finally get to meet Nat! I hope i didn't make her seem too cold, as she really is just a misunderstood cutie pie! **_

_**The Nameless One was not revealed in this chapter like i promised, but trust me when i say he does get revealed in the next and stuff really **_really_**goes down in the next chapter as well.**_

_**I kinda felt a little rusty too, hopefully i wasn't. Also, the surprise is FOR SURE coming in the chapter after the next, i have it all mapped out.**_

_**In other news, i will be hosting a character awards in the very last chapter of The Timekeepers and that will just be like 'Best Overall Character', 'Best Backstory', 'Most Attractive Character', and so on.**_

_**The next OC fic will probably be starting a couple weeks after this one ends, as I do have to catch up with my Dark Pan and Percabeth Private School fics. I've decided that the next OC fic will probably take place in Camp Half-Blood, so it can be more character-centered. Also the OC submission will probably be a story, rather than a forum, and you can just put your applications in the reviews, because i think the whole 'forum' thing was kind of a hassle.**_

_**Sorry for rambling on and on, but pretty much i just want to say thank you guys for giving me such wonderful OC's to work with!**_

_**-timelordXatXhearts )**_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten: Back To The Future**

* * *

"Καλώς ορίσατε, Ryan Blaze.  
(Welcome)  
Καλώς ήλθατε στο τέλος του χρόνου.  
(Welcome to the end of time.)  
Well, at least your time."

The cold breath of silence made a shiver run down the length of Ryan's back, and made his blood run cold.  
The voice that spoke was so fluid it was smooth, yet so low that it was gravelly.  
The voice was like a scary story told in the form of a lullaby.  
It was lovely like honey over honey, but it was too sweet, and reminded Ryan of the luring of a siren, beckoning you into thrashing waters.

Most of all the voice was familiar.

Ryan was in utter shock, not moving and still processing what was going on, but Nat and Cade were manic, whipping their heads around the throne room and searching for the owner of the echoing silky voice.

Nat had her scythe poised in trembling fingertips, and Cade had her hands cupped around her mouth and was screaming, "I know you're out there, Carl!"

The trio whirled back towards the Timekeep at the quiet flapping sound of heavy fabric swooshing around.  
It was the Nameless One twirling the tail of his coat.

"Wait, who's Carl?" The Nameless One raised his eyebrow at Cade and stepped out from behind the Timekeep in one swift motion, but Nat didn't recall hearing his feet hit the ground.

No one stepped forward, but they sure as hell didn't lower their weapons. All eyes were flickering back and forth and back and forth from the charged Timekeep and the ominous figure.

But this Nameless One had a name, and Ryan knew what it was.  
He had rugged, snow white wings that curled like claws at the tips and carried only sinisterly sharp feathers. The great swallowing shadow that the wings cast was more terrifying than the wings themselves, as they created the illusion of spiky shadow towers across the gaping room's walls and how they damned everything behind him into darkness.

His hair was a white that envied that of his wings, a silver-tinted white in comparison, and was combed back like a gentleman's in a 50's movie.  
The fact that he was so deathly beautiful only made him more terrifying.  
But Ryan would've feared him more if he wasn't trying so hard to appear shocking, with his dark, angular eyebrows that were always raised and his condescending sneer of a smile, purposefully allowing his pointy little canine tooth to poke into his own bottom lip.

Cade's heart was probably beating the fastest, but she spoke anyways, with her tongue feeling slippery and foreign to herself under the watchful gaze of the winged-man.  
"Ryan, is that an angel?"

The winged-man was obviously amused at this question, as the careless tapping of his fingers thrumming against the Timekeep sped up.

His eyes were the only color in is face, with his pale complexion and his white blazer with black tie.  
_'He looks like a well-groomed business man who deals out souls.'_ Nat thought coldly.

"More like daemon. But he's no angel." Ryan spat out, not breaking his glower from the spirit daemon.

The daemon let his dusty iron eyes trail over the Timekeep and onto Ryan's.  
"I know who you are." Ryan said the words like a threat, clutching his two swords so tightly, his sweaty hands making the hilts slippery.

"And I know who you are, Ryan Blaze, better than you know who you are." The Nameless One mused.  
His voice crawled up Ryan's spine and made him want to both fall asleep and vomit all at once.  
The daemon began to waltz across the throne room with his hands behind his back, leaving the Timekeep untouched.

"Zelus." Ryan let loose the Nameless One's name, practically spitting it out.

Cade studied the floor, racking her mind for that name.  
_'Zelus? I thought he worked for Zeus?'_ This knowledge only made Cade raise her hammer higher.

"Ah! I thought you wouldn't remember me! You were only a precious, stupid, blubbering child when Zeus had me and my other siblings show you around Olympus. Oh the duties of 'a winged enforcer!' Or as my sister Bia would say, the duties of a puppet on strings."  
Zelus's expression darkened and he stopped pacing.

_'His sister Bia is force, his sister Nike is victory, and he is rival and envy. They are the workers for Zeus.'_ Cade ran the facts over her head, looking for a weakness.  
_'Or they __were__ the workers for Zeus…'_

"I thought you served my father!" Ryan screamed, eyes still darting back to the Timekeep.

_'Thunder boy is stalling…'_ Nat realized.

Zelus didn't turn back to Ryan, only waving him off and pressing is thumb against the orb of the Timekeep, igniting a misty golden light, like that of a hologram, above, projecting a count down of 60 seconds.

Ryan knew that they wouldn't be able to defeat this guy alone, and definitely not in 60 seconds before he went back to the Titan War and did gods' know what, but he didn't just lose July and Chloe for nothing, and he would go down swinging.

"Me? Serving Zeus?!" Zelus scoffed into the air, but still didn't seem to care enough to face Ryan. "Your father thought he could contain and control the spirit daemons of force, victory, and rival! Your father is a fool."  
"MY FATHER IS A GOD!" Ryan's voice boomed through the Timekeeper's Palace and a vein was bulging on his neck.

Zelus only laughed at his anger.  
"So soon to-"

"RYAN! The Timekeep!" Nat shouted, jutting out a finger towards the orb that was spinning faster and faster.  
The glowing number was down to 6 seconds.

"NO!" Cade screamed, but by now all 4 were lunging towards the Timekeep, and by the moment their hands hit the cool gold, they were lunging into the Titan War itself. 

* * *

The warp was so agonizing that it felt like Nat's stomach was in her lungs and like her legs were mangled and twisted in a symphony of pain.  
When her feet first hit the concrete, her legs felt paralyzed and she forgot how to breathe.

Nat counted to ten under her breath, with her hands on her knees.  
The moment her head stopped swirling and finally she didn't feel like it was going to topple off of her shoulders, she looked down and saw that her feet had crumpled underneath her and were bleeding.  
Nat gulped down the taste of blood and forced herself to look up, but the view wasn't so nice from this angle either.

Nat, Cade, and Ryan had all apparated into the the chaos of the streets of New York, mid-battle.

She whipped her head to the left and the right to look for the others, or even more so importantly Zelus and whatever he had planned.

But all the daughter of Hades saw were hundreds upon hundreds of charging campers and various monsters. The roar of battle cries was constant, like a river, and Nat could barely hear her own thoughts.

Something hit her shoulder hard and her footing faltered again. She was weak, too weak to be fighting against history, but the waves of orange campers and the rumble of blundering beasts battling on New York city streets kept on.

"RYAN! CADE!?" Nat choked out, stumbling forward before gaining her footing and raising her battle scythe meekly.  
She spotted the white wings of Zelus bobbing above the crowd, and started to cut her way through the stream of demigods and beasts.

Nat didn't even have to use her weapon, but she probably couldn't have used it anyways, as her scythe was hanging low in her hand and he was barely managing to make her way across the street.

It felt like she was walking through a dream, it was all so surreal.

Nat didn't even look up to duck underneath the swing of the monster Lamia's claw nor did she acknowledge the grunt of an angry camper.

Nat was struggling to keep her eyelids open, and her jaw was slack.  
_'Just follow the wings, Nat, stay with me…'_ She told herself.

A large crash erupted from the swarm of chaos and Nat whipped her head towards the docks.  
Percy Jackson himself, white hair streak and all, was struggling to fight off the legendary minotaur.  
Another sharp clang rung out and Nat spotted a wild eyed Annabeth Chase, dagger darting in and out of hearts of monsters and ramming into them with her foot.

_'Almost across the street…'_ Nat pushed herself to run a little faster, receiving some distracted looks from a few demigods.  
They knew she was out of place, and she felt like she was walking through history.

"RYAN!" Nat shouted with relief.  
But he couldn't hear her, he was busy fending off a beast of ghastly proportions, sword stopping just before the throat when he remembered Clarisse LaRue was the one who was supposed to slay the beast in the textbooks.

Ryan scrunched up his nose frustratedly, but nonetheless sprinted off towards Zelus instead. He couldn't change anything, or the entire war result could change as well.

Nat soon caught up with him, and Cade was already by Ryan's side, her hammer now in razored mode and drenched in dry-cracked blood.  
Ryan couldn't help but think they were too late as Zelus had his back turned, wings opened, and had his fingers upon a great button of another strange Mist device that looked a lot like a bomb. The Timekeep was thrown to the side, just a toy in comparison to this weapon.  
But Arabella McCade had other ways of dealing with things.

Zelus was about to detonate his mist device when he was met with a slam to the back of the head with the blunt side of a war hammer.  
Ryan flinched at the sickening crackle that resulted (on mortals or even some monsters, that kind of blow would have your skull bashed in), it sent what felt like bolts of electric lightning searing up his skull.

"For Chloe." Cade spat out, lifting a foot on top of the back of the fallen 'angel', digging her boot in deep and cracking his spine.  
Cade turned to Ryan at the sound of two blades slicing together.  
He stepped forward, kicking Zelus on his side so he could face them.  
"For Will."

Nat clicked her necklace, and both Cade and Ryan felt a cool rush from her Stygian Ice Scythe.  
"F-For July."  
She didn't know July, but she watched her death from the south palace tower, and knew she meant a lot to Cade and Ryan, even after everything.  
Ryan nodded at her in approval, then faced Zelus, Ryan's electric eyes looking purely antarctic, and just as stony as his father's.

Their cunning villain, even being the mighty Zelus, rival and envy himself, had fear flicker across his eyes for a second.  
He wasn't a daemon right now, he was just as daft as a bland little mortal with 3 weapons at his neck.  
It would bring Ryan much joy to give him a simple, mortal death, nothing epic, nothing legendary, just enough to stop his beating, blackened heart and save the past and the future.

Ryan brought the blades to his chest, and Zelus took in a sharp intake of air, making a shrilly noise.  
Ryan smiled, raising up one of his blades with a victorious smile, ready for the finishing blow when something peculiar happened.  
The shrill noise was replaced with a low laughing.

His face darkened and he snapped his neck down to Zelus, whose eyes had blackened into dark hallows, like they'd sunken into his sockets, the surrounding skin becoming bruised with a veining blackness.  
He was performing some type of magic.

That was it.  
They'd forgotten the fact that he wasn't just a mortal. A daemon wouldn't be that easy to kill.

Cade felt her foot sinking right through his chest.  
_'He may not be an angel, but he sure as hell has wings, and he's flying away!'_

"Next time, Blaze." Zelus pulled back his pale lips into a smile and winked, his entire being disappearing somewhere else into the past.

"Quick! Ryan! The mist detonator!"  
Ryan leaned forward and pressed the button on the silver device, the ticking inside stopping with a final echo of halting gears.

The three finally allowed themselves to breathe out and lift their hands to their heads.  
Nat was the most affected by the Timekeep, letting her scythe drop to the ground completely.  
For a second they almost forgot about the war raging on around them.

"Does that mean he's somewhere in the future now? Do we have to find that asshole again?" Cade hissed through teeth, eyelids clenched shut and head still swaying from the Timekeep.

Ryan shook his head.  
"No. Only the Timekeep can travel through time. This guy is somewhere out here. Somewhere in the past."

Cade lifted her hammer from its perch on the side of the cement enthusiastically.  
"Shouldn't we hunt his over-groomed butt down or something?"

Nat took no part in the conversation, still catching her breath and watching the main street, making sure the battle wouldn't spill off into their side street.

"No, he could be anywhere in the world right now. And as long as we've got his weapon and the Timekeep, we've got the upper hand." Ryan concluded.

Nat suddenly joined the conversation all at once, storming over and lifting up the Timekeep and the Mist device with one hand.  
"Let's just get the Hades out of here before we get pummeled by a Titan."

Ryan noticed that her feet were bleeding, but he wouldn't ask. Nat seemed pretty private, and he would respect that.  
"You're right."

Nat pushed the Timekeep into his chest at his answer, and it felt lighter than it looked. It felt hollow.

Nat explained quickly.  
"It's loaded with Mist luckily, so we won't need to wait for another winter solstice to charge it up again. Ryan, set it up."

Ryan nodded, unsure, but set the golden dials to the exactly date and exact second he thought they had left at.

"Ready?" Ryan checked for an okay from both the girls.  
Cade's head was already curbing with nausea at the thought of using the crude method of travel again, but despite that, both her and Nat nodded with a gulp.

Ryan pressed his shaking thumb onto the center of the orb and closed his eyes, the gut-twisting Timekeep already working its magic and sending them back to the future.

* * *

Something was wrong.

Cade's feet had just hit solid ground, but the noise echoed for some reason, like they were indoors.

_'Why are we still inside the palace?'_ Cade thought, clutching her stomach.

She nearly choked, stopping herself from going any further as she almost barreled into the back of a girl sprinting the opposite direction, with a poof of brown hair and smooth bronzed skin. There were two other people in front of her, and they had just burst into the throne room.

An icy hand gripped her arm and Cade almost screamed, but it was just Nat, gasping for air.

"Ryan set the freaking Timekeep too early." Nat warned.  
Ryan jogged up next to Nat, looking remarkably okay despite the time travel, but his face was one shade greener.

"Wait, do you know what this means?" He muttered, hearing the throne room door boom shut, but not even flinching.

Cade just stared at him blankly and shrugged.

"We can end this. Kill Zelus before he gets away." He stated calmly.

_'Could we do that?'_ Cade thought, but Nat answered her question with a hand on Ryan's chest, stopping him from going forward with his plan.

"Guys! If we help past-us kill Zelus, then our future would've never happened. _We_ would've never happened. After we help them, we will cease to exist, but past-us will live on."

Cade pondered the thought of dying, or "ceasing", but it didn't seem like there was another option.  
And Ryan promised he would go down swinging.

"You in?" Nat asked them both, obsidian eye shining with moonlight.

Cade answered first.  
"Well that sounds scary as hell, but you can count me in Nat."  
Nat turned to Ryan quickly, knowing they had no time to lose.  
"Ryan?"

Ryan stood up taller, and adjusted his grip on his swords.  
"I'm all about ceasing to exist."

Nat grinned, well half-grinned, which was the most anyone had gotten out of her.

"And we'll live on…" Ryan stroked Cade's cheek with his thumb reassuringly, and she smiled. "Well, sort of…"

Nat frowned at their odd brother-sister, love-hate relationship, but then snatched up both of their hands, already back-pedaling towards the throne room.

"Great. Now lets go kick some daemon ass and seriously freak out some past versions of us."  
Cade raised up her war hammer the highest she could and charged forward, right beside Ryan and back into the fray once more.

* * *

_**(A/N: I am so sorry I didn't update sooner! I was sick for the last 4 days, and I've just moved schools so things have been a little bit rough...**_

_**Hopefully the next chapter won't be too confusing with the "past-Ryan" and the "future-Ryan" and so on. I'll find a way to make it work! Anyways, the next chapter contains the surprise! I think you guys will really enjoy it, and hopefully it will brighten up the chapter a bit!**_

_**In other news, I think I'm going to stop writing my Dark!Pan fic considering I have been REALLY slacking on keeping up with my Jelsa and Percabeth ones, and I am planning on picking up my Punk!Percy one again.**_

_**Whew! Lots to do!**_

_**Thanks for reading!**_

_**-timelordXatXhearts)**_


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